23 November 2016 (gig)
24 November 2016
Anyone going to see Beth Hart live can expect to have their emotional scars torn open by a woman who drills into the audience’s soul and takes root. Last night she was simply magnificent and I saw at least a half dozen in the capacity crowd with tears streaming down their face.
She has lived a hard life and come through. Her songs are songs of loss and pain and joy and memories and the way that she interacts with her audience is something special to behold.
Opening the show from the middle of the hall, shaking hands and sharing hugs with her fans and somehow bringing the entire crowd into her personal circle of friends was brilliantly achieved and when she entreated the crowd to sing along, chanting ‘Motherfucker’ at the top of their voices and then admitting with a cackle that that had no relevance to the song – she just wanted to hear the crowd chant ‘Motherfucker’ for laughs. From the beginning of ‘Don’t Explain’ she owned the audience and they were in heaven.
The set included some of her best numbers including a simply divine ‘Saint Theresa’ and a heartwrenching ‘Sister Heroin’ but only a few of the numbers from her fine new album. She tricked the band a few times by throwing in numbers off the set list but they were good enough to cope and musically the evening was great. The final encore was one of the best versions I’ve heard of Etta James classic ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ and yet again a moment where she went off script.
But the evening was billed as Beth Hart and she was, at all times the focus. You just couldn’t take your eyes off her whether she was prowling the stage, jumping around on tiptoes or sat at the front of the stage, legs akimbo in the most unladylike pose imaginable.
She certainly isn’t a ‘lady’ but she is all woman and all of her pain and passion is that of her audience too – no wonder the voices kept calling out “We love you Beth”.
She announced at the end that she will be playing a one-off at the Royal Albert Hall in May 2018 - start queueing for tickets now.
Picture copyright John Bull
