PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
Tonight was my second time in a week seeing Beth Hart and support act Martin Harley. Once again the night kicked off with Martin Harley, a singer/songwriter who performs solo. He sits and plays a lap guitar while singing. He’s got a very good voice and his guitar playing is excellent. His set is clearly chosen carefully for the audience as he’s picked out the Blues songs that he’s done as well as others that are Bluesy enough to appeal to Beth Hart’s audience. I enjoyed his whole set, with “Blues in my window” in particular being very impressive. He ended the set with “nobody’s fault but mine”. A great opening act, and the queue of people buying CDs at the merch stand straight after the show shows he made plenty of new fans tonight.
Beth Hart came out to huge applause and took her seat at the keyboard at the front of the stage where she performed the first song solo. After that she brought the band out and introduced them. She carried on playing the keyboards seated for the next couple of songs, before standing up to perform my highlight of the night – a superb cover of “Nutbush city limits”. From then on she performed some songs just singing and others seated and playing the keyboards as well as singing.
Beth has an amazing talent – she is certainly one of the best female singers around with a powerful voice that carries so much emotion, and some amazing vocal control – she’s able to bring in the power as and when it’s needed, switch seamlessly from slow sad Blues to powerful rock in a heartbeat, and to switch from soft and gentle to full power equally fast. Paired with this incredible voice she writes amazing songs.
Between songs she talks to the audience and unlike many bands, it’s completely unscripted. She introduces a couple of the songs that she did in London but does it in a different way, telling the audience different things about the song or its inspiration. She’s also amazingly frank about having had drink/drug problems in the past.
Her band are all great musicians and the various solos are greeted with plenty of applause. Watching their interaction with Beth Hart they come across as a family and all look to be having a great time.
As always tonight’s set list is totally unpredictable – it changes every night and can even change during the show if the crowd want a particular song that isn’t on the planned setlist. One thing I’m sure of though – even if she doesn’t play someones favourite song, I can’t see them feeling disappointed at all as the whole set is so good. My highlight tonight was “Nutbush city limits”, but “Baddest blues” and “I love you more than you’ll ever know” are both up there with it. There wasn’t a single point in the set which wasnt great
Tonight’s gig felt more intimate than London – the crowd was probably a similar size, but the venue means the crowd felt closer and the balcony is not as far away, and that really did make a difference to the atmosphere.
Beth Hart is an incredible singer, and tonight’s show is definitely one of my top gigs of the year.
Setlist:
I’ll Take Care Of You
Setting Me Free
Thru The Window Of My Mind
Nutbush City Limits
Delicious Surprise
Miss Lady
Sister Heroine
Leave The Light On
Stinky Feet
Learning To Live
Baddest Blues
Better Man
I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know
Encore:
The Ugliest House On The Block
Angel From Montgomery
Broken & Ugly
House Of Sin
Trouble
