Natalie Merchant live on BBC
Posted by: BigH47 on 25 January 2010
quote:Originally posted by Ian G.:
Ewemon, I'd be interested in any observation you have on the glasgow gig that some of us had to miss due to bloody work commitments!
Well Ian I promised you a review of the show.
Andy Kershaw was sitting directly in front of me.
She played for over 2 hours and was having a whale of a time in fact the crowd were enjoying it so much she came back for 2 sets of encores. I will get back to the encores later.
She played a mix of old and new stuff incl unreleased songs such as Texas (which she has only ever played live 4 times, If I Only Had a Brain from the Wizard of Oz, which she sang acapella during one of the encores and Butterfly a sort of Childrens little dainty.
However I can't say I have been to many accoustic gigs where when the artist is singing you could hear a pin drop.
Her voice was getting stronger the longer the gig went on and by the end it was majestic.
The new stuff is something she has been working on for 6 years and if the tracks she chose to play are anything to go by then the double album will be worth having.
I particulary liked the Cannibal song (can't remember the title) which was hilarious and the Rupert Graves poem set to music almost had me in tears. The music was hauntingly beautiful in parts and simply structured.
I have heard other artists attempts at setting poetry to music and can't say I have ever enjoyed them as it can be tricky to try and capture the feeling of the poetry especially if you didn't write it yourself.
Her band consisted of Eric Della Pena and Gabriel Gordon or Bubba as she affectionately calls him and a cellist whose name escapes for the moment.
One bright wag shouted out about midway through the gig 10,000 Maniacs to which Natalie replied I think I have heard of them.
She closed the main part of the show with Motherland which about halfway through you could hear Eric play a bum note. Natalie burst in fits of laugther and ended up having to ask Bubba and the audience what the next lines in the song were as she had forgotten. It kinda spoiled what should have been the highlight of the main part of the gig.
However little did we know that she would come back on and play 7 songs in 2 encore sets.
During one of the encores she mentioned that there was 7 seats that were directly in front of her that had been empty all night so could some of the audience come down to the front. Needless to say it didn't take long for the seats to be filled.
At this point she started to sing Kind and Generous and chose this girl who had been sitting very close to me and who had rushed down to get one of the 7 seats to sing with her.
What are the chances of you choosing someone form the audience who could sing and sing well even Natalie was surprised by how good the girl was. In fact the girl knew all the words and when Natalie stopped singing to talk to the audience during the song the girl kept singing behind. She even sat on the front of the stage with the girl and had photos taken. Not very often you see that happening these days.
For the second encore set she brought on the support band Lunasa who also appear on her new album for 4 songs. 3 of which were off the new album and the last was an old Irish folk song that they decided to do after some discussion.
A fitting end to a great night.
quote:Originally posted by Diccus62:
Superb Lontano Natalie is someone I have wanted to see since her 10.000 Maniacs days...keeping an eye out for the Sage tickets coming on sale :-)
On sale right NOW at ticketmaster
wah where are the Usher Hall tickets to be found.... 
quote:Originally posted by munch:Ticketmasterquote:Originally posted by Ian G.:
wah where are the Usher Hall tickets to be found....
er? not on my computer, 6 other UK dates but not Edinburgh?
ok I'll keep trying the box office - at least there they have no huge booking fee and nice helpful ladies on the phone
cheers
Ian
cheers
Ian
quote:Originally posted by Ian G.:
ok I'll keep trying the box office - at least there they have no huge booking fee and nice helpful ladies on the phone
cheers
Ian
Now sorted by one of those nice ladies thanks for the heads up !
Ian
Nic and me have our tickets near the front at the Sage Gateshead. Cheers for the heads up Lontano