It was a little surprising given that I regularly keep my eye on the listings for this venue (Bush Hall) and this gig ended up involving not one but two Irish artists and I am normally all over anything musical and Irish that comes through London.
In any event, a tweet from Glen Hansard a few days before brings this gig directly to my attention. Glen says he's going to be in London and was planning on coming to this show anyway to support his mate Bronagh so seeing he's going to be there, he's going to strap on The Horse (aka his guitar) and do a few tunes to open up - RESULT!!
I don't know a lot about Bronagh's musical leanings - I've only heard and seen her acting exploits so I'm looking forward to seeing what she is going to dish up. A further carrot (not that one is needed!) is that Graham Hopkins from The Frames is part of Bronagh's band so it's an all in Irish-fest in London - woot!
Bush Hall is set up tonight with tables and chairs - it's the laid back blues club kind of feel which I don't experience at shows often. I'm more than happy to be able to sit around with my mates and put my glass of wine on the table as opposed to standing for several hours.
Glen is on around 8.10pm and starts with the traditional acapella tome Spencer the Rover. I'm always amused to hear Glen do this piece - it works as a nice self- assessment and makes me wonder how many frequent flyer miles Glen himself has from his constant international roving!
We then move on to a couple of Swell Season numbers - Low Rising and In These Arms. When these songs are stripped down it gives you an opportunity to consider their construction and their lyrics. For someone who claims that he doesn't spend a lot of time writing lyrics there are some real 'Cohenesque' pearlers in there - one of my favourites being the opening line of In These Arms:
'Use the truth as a weapon to beat up all your friends'
Glen then introduces a song new he calls Bird of Sorrow and says it's for his Ma. I actually heard Glen perform this song in Basel last year but it wasn't anywhere near as developed as this version which is gobsmackingly good. Glen projects magnificently on this towards the end and the addition of a powerful foot stamp which resonates through the stage floor really makes it riveting. This 5 minutes is more than worth my £10 ticket for tonight and I'm delighted to hear that this will be on Glen's upcoming solo album - it can't come out soon enough for me! I have taken video of this performance but in keeping with Glen's wishes y'all gonna have to wait until the album's out for me to share it.
UPDATE: The album is now out so here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWTrQqcTUdo
Glen finishes his 6 song opening set with two other newish songs - Lover Don't Keep Me Waiting and Song of Good Hope. These songs have flown by and it leaves me longing for some European Glen solo dates - patience is a virtue I'm a tad short on at present!
Bronagh is on around 9pm and to my complete surprise brings on a full band and by full band I mean drums, bass, guitar, keyboards, sax, trumpet and two backing singers - the stage is suddenly chokka block full of Irish men and women -and I wonder has there ever been this many people on stage at Bush Hall?
Fittingly the first song is called Here They Go - and go they do!
Not knowing what to expect I am impressed to hear Bronagh's low soulful voice imploring the audience to 'look inside yourself and no-one else'. I'm sitting very comfortably at a nice table with a glass of vino and a complete soul band dishing out great tunes - this is awesome!
They take a long road into the short cut next with a song aptly titled Short Cut. The band sound really good - I don't know how long they have been together but it's pretty tight so far. This is helped in no short part by Graham Hopkins who is playing his part as the engine of this Irish soul train with beautiful touch. He's a force but isn't overpowering and it goes to show how important a really good drummer is to a band's dynamic because the band appear to be working really well onstage - everyone is having a good time and as an audience member that's what you want to see. There is nothing worse than sitting through a performance where the artist and band do no more than 'pose out' and/or look miserable.
Next up is a song called Mexico which Bronagh says is about Mexican rockabillys - I love it - it's a romantic tale where the protagonist of the story:
'Took her hand by the guacamole taco bar'
Awesome - where's the tequila? :)
A couple of songs later we move into the soul diva section of the set with Bronagh giving us her Aretha ode in the form of Love is Going to Find You. It's clear that this is where Bronagh's passion lies and her dedication to honouring the soul greats in her own way through song is infectious and this number really gets the crowd going. Bronagh declares: 'We white but we awwright'. I particularly enjoy the reference to woman in Whelans and so does the vast majority of the crowd - it seems that there are a lot of friends and family present and Bronagh remarks on more than one occasion that she can feel the love in the room. It helps that her band members include close friends and even family (like her god-daughter on backing vocals).
The tracks closing out the main set cover fairytales, 70s rockstars and a Dolly/Hank/Willie ode - this mixture of country, blues and soul has dominated the evening.
They finish up with Bronagh's new single 'Fool'. She happily advises that it is available for free download as of midnight (anyone interested should go get it here: http://www.bronaghgallagher.com/) and it's easily the poppiest soul song of the set and - at Bronagh's insistence - THE dance number of the night.
The encore break is lightning fast and within a couple of minutes the band is back on and delving into a Gladys Knights cover - If I Was Your Woman. It's a great song and a fitting choice for Bronagh given the dedication to the soul queens she has shown tonight. That is closely followed by another cover - You Got a Friend - where some audience participation by way of singalong is requested. We oblige and it ends easily one of the best nights I've had out in London for a tenner in a long time - but then again it's unusual for me not to have a good night where Irish musicians are involved!!
Go raibh maith agaibh (it's thank you in Gaelic - yeah I looked it up!)
More photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59794835@N00/sets/72157629075316432/
No comments:
Post a Comment