Beth Orton @ Shepherds Bush Empire
I saw Beth Orton at Shepherds Bush Empire last night, and I am now absolutely shattered - I didn't get home until about 1:30, then I couldn't sleep, and then I had to get up at 7:40 to come to work. I am a bit of a zombie at the moment, to be honest, but so far I have resisted the urge to tank up on caffeine. It didn't help that I got in to work to find six emails in my inbox about a problem that may have actually involved thought, but has been postponed a bit by my realisation that the user in question has been a bit of an idiot and needs to go away and retry everything again. Phew, crisis averted, even if only temporarily - I can now get on with the difficult task of waking up.
Anyway, Beth Orton was fabulous, as was to be expected. The Empire obviously doesn't have the excellent acoustic qualities of Oxford Town Hall which is where I saw her before, but the sound quality was nevertheless pretty good. She played for about an hour and a half including the encores, which is a pretty good length. I think she played the majority of songs from the new album (I certainly can't think of any she didn't), plus a fair few of her older songs including 'Concrete Sky', 'Pass In Time', 'Feel To Believe', 'I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine', 'Sugar Boy', and 'She Cries Your Name'. No 'Blood Red River' or 'Devil Song', unfortunately, which are two of my favourites, but it's got to the point where she has too many good songs to play all of them now. She put in a very good performance - she did say her voice was a bit rough after a month on tour, but to be honest she sounded fine to me.
My dad is on my list of neighbours on my last.fm profile. I think this is a sign that I need to stop lending him CDs.
Off to the Zodiac tonight to see the Futureheads.
Anyway, Beth Orton was fabulous, as was to be expected. The Empire obviously doesn't have the excellent acoustic qualities of Oxford Town Hall which is where I saw her before, but the sound quality was nevertheless pretty good. She played for about an hour and a half including the encores, which is a pretty good length. I think she played the majority of songs from the new album (I certainly can't think of any she didn't), plus a fair few of her older songs including 'Concrete Sky', 'Pass In Time', 'Feel To Believe', 'I Wish I Never Saw The Sunshine', 'Sugar Boy', and 'She Cries Your Name'. No 'Blood Red River' or 'Devil Song', unfortunately, which are two of my favourites, but it's got to the point where she has too many good songs to play all of them now. She put in a very good performance - she did say her voice was a bit rough after a month on tour, but to be honest she sounded fine to me.
My dad is on my list of neighbours on my last.fm profile. I think this is a sign that I need to stop lending him CDs.
Off to the Zodiac tonight to see the Futureheads.