New Zealand born artist Aldous Harding brought her Train on the Island album tour to Brooklyn Steel on September 9. The show consisted mostly of the new album, her first in four years, omitting only one song.

The album is a curious mix of sounds, primarily soft and warm with bursts of early 2010s indie on “Venus in the Zinnia” and strutting Tom Waits energy on “What Am I Gonna Do?” Lined with themes of self reflection and male perception, the lyricism is constructed in an almost MF DOOM style, building intricate melodies through webs of seemingly unrelated ideas that only become clear when viewed as a whole.

These themes take on new intensity live, as Aldous’ iconic on stage movements echo the toll these memories must take on her. Her music is grounded in this motion, as Aldous Harding has little to say on stage, though few artists provide as much meaning through crowd work as they do in their music. Now the US leg of the Train on the Island tour continues, ending in LA on October 1 and moving on to Australia and New Zealand.