I have to confess that I was not hugely excited by the prospect of going to this gig. Although never exactly averse to Beth Orton (I loved her Chemical Brothers collaboration, ‘Where Do I Begin’) I generally find it hard to enthuse about acoustic-wielding singer-songwriters, particularly in a live setting.
A dire support act (specialising in dull as ditchwater, sub-David Gray MOR fare) and the not insignificant fact that I was missing the back-to-back opening episodes of the new season of 24 didn’t exactly help matters. What a pleasant surprise, then, that Ms Orton herself provides a thoroughly enjoyable if admittedly one-paced evening’s entertainment. Opening with the jazzy swing of ‘Worms’, Orton and her extremely accomplished band proceed to move through the foot-stomping groove of ‘Rectify’ and the pastoral ambience of ‘Countenance’ with impressive verve. A nervy performer at the best of times, the singer’s between-song banter tonight is particularly anxious. It is full of apologetic references to the fact that she is still getting used to performing songs from her new album, Comfort Of Strangers.
Orton needn’t have worried. She moves from up-tempo, funky-melodic pop in the manner of Life-era Cardigans, to plaintive acoustic blues, to Wickerman-style weird-beard folk with remarkable grace. For instance, ‘Stolen Car’, performed solo (complete with a cascading, waterfall lighting effect a la the opening party scene in Eyes Wide Shut), is simply breathtaking.
By the end, you do find yourself pining for a bit of good old fashioned rock action, a situation Orton quickly rectifies with paint-stripping versions of ‘Ace Of Spades’, ‘Song 2’ and ‘Enter Sandman’. Alright, so I made that last bit up. Nonetheless, it was a good deal better than I expected it to be and, whaddayaknow, those 24 episodes were repeated the very next night.
Everyone’s a winner baby, as the perceptive Errol Brown once sang.