Brandi Carlile @ Arts Theatre London

I've just arrived at home after seeing Brandi Carlile at the Arts Theatre London. It was awesome! AWESOME!

Before I say any more I have to thank Ellie for saving my sanity and arranging tickets for me when I thought all hope was lost. I also have to thank Kate for restoring my faith in human kindness by offering me a pair of tickets today. Bless you both.

This was my first visit to the Arts Theatre and I have to say that it is a really nice venue for a gig. It looked like there were about 300 seats in a nice compact, yet comfortable space. Every seat was filled, and there were enough people to create a great atmosphere, but the venue is small enough for everyone to be close to the artists. I understand that tonight's performance will be the last concert at the Arts Theatre. This is a shame.

Phil Campbell opened up, and I have to say he was very, very good. I haven't heard of him or any of his songs before, but I was very impressed.

His voice is much larger than he is (he bumped into me on the way out), and his songwriting is quite accomplished. The only thing I could fault him on (and only a little) was his stage craft.

He didn't really connect with the audience. Still there's nothing wrong with his singing or his songwriting, and I'm thinking of going to see him perform again, soon.

Now, Brandi Carlile.

Did I say awesome? Oh, I did. Hmmm; thesaurus time... how about, great, incredible, fabulous, amazing, astounding, fantastic, superb or outstanding? Take your pick, they all apply in bucket loads.

From the very first song, all the way through to the end of the performance, she (and to be fair, the rest of the band also) had a great stage presence. The kind of interaction with the audience that make the audience feel part of the performance and makes a gig worth going to.

That alone would have made it a good gig, but what elevated it to awesome status was the the face that each song was wonderfully and in many cases, energetically performed.

Add the fact that she has a great voice and talent for songwriting and you get an awesome gig. It's a simple recipe really.

There was old stuff, new stuff from the next album, covers of 'Creep' by Radiohead & Jeff Buckley's version of 'Hallelulah' (which happens to be one of my favorite songs) to close the set.

Every song was played just about perfectly and the only real disappointment was the lighting engineer's foray into random psuedo-psychadellic lighting on one song, relatively early in the set, which thankfully wasn't repeated.

After a bit of reflection I'd have to say that the gig was at least as good as the Willie Nelson concert I went to at the Apollo in May (but not as long, he may be old, but he can go on for hours). It was almost as good as seeing the Boss at the Emirates Stadium. I can't give her any higher praise than that.

So there you have it, I'm a fan. I even bought a T-shirt!

I'm torn about posting this. The more people that are aware of Brandi's great voice, lyrics and performances, the harder it will be to get tickets. With a bit of luck she'll be performing in London again before too long.

Whenever it is, I'll definitely be trying to buy a few tickets.

Kew Gardens' Summer Swing

I went to Kew Gardens to see Lulu and guests perform tonight. We got lucky with the weather and it was a cool and dry Thursday evening. There were a lot more people there than I expected and as we were an little later arriving than we had originally planned, we ended up sitting quite a distance from the stage. Luckily the acoustics there were actually very good and apart from in terms of the volume, it wouldn't have made much of a difference where we sat.



The supporting act was a really good singer. I'm not sure if he writes his own stuff but if he does, then he'd be a really good singer/songwriter. I can't remember his name, which is a shame as I would like to hear more of his music. He reminded me of so many great singers that I'm sure he'll be quite successful. The nearest singer I can think of in terms of vocal style and delivery was David Gray, but there were hints of of artists in some of his songs.



Lulu was good, not great, but good. I suppose considering her age she was quite good, but after the great voice that preceded her, she was a bit weak. On stage with Lulu was Kiki Dee and Paul Carrick and they were also good, but nothing special.

Lulu came on and sang the songs everyone expected her to sing, but her rendition of "The Man Who Sold the World" was just poor. On the other hand she did sing "To Sir With Love" quite well and she and Kiki Dee did a good version of "Don't Go Breaking My Heart". Her duets with Paul Carrick were not bad either.

Paul Simon @ Wembley

I went to see Paul Simon in concert at Wembley Arena last night. Had a good time. It wasn't quite what I had expected. For starters there wasn't the large backing vocal section that I was hoping for and Wembley Arena isn't the best venue from an acoustic perspective.

It wasn't until the third song that the sound engineers got the levels correct and even then it was a little dodgy. Paul played a lot of his more popular songs and the performace was great. Despite being one of the shortest people you'll ever see on stage he has a great stage presence. The band was quite good and the delivery of the songs was great, but te atmosphere was lacking. Wembley Area is probably too large for this kind of music.