Beth Hart appeared at Oxford’s New Theatre on June 4th (a rescheduled date from the earlier UK tour), supported by Wille and the Bandits.
Stages have their uses in theatre. They make it easier for the audience to see and hear performers, and they create separation between the audience and the act. Beth Hart tore down that line before the show even started.
The house lights only dimmed enough to let you know something was happening. Beth’s band started playing ‘You Still Got Me’ on the stage. As is often the case, she started singing the first number from the back of the auditorium.
As she walked slowly forward, she shook hands and fist-bumped people next to the aisle, waved to people further in and stopped from time to time to connect with others. When she got to the stage, she continued across the front row and did the same in the other aisle. You would be forgiven for thinking that she had flown the whole of her extended family, and every one of her many best mates, all the way from the US, to Oxford, England.
Many artistes work hard to win over the audience in the first few numbers. The best ones manage to do it quite well. But it is unusual to do so before the show had even started. Beth already had that ‘Freddy Mercury’ type of look that world-class performers have at the end of a stunningly successful set – but this was just the start of hers. That line at the edge of the stage had disappeared. The audience were with her and she knew it.
You may think you know Beth Hart. For those that need more, Beth crept into public consciousness in the noughties, and started to become well known with some notable appearances as a vocalist on other peoples’ albums, such as on the track ‘Mother Maria’ with Slash, then appearing at the Kennedy Centre Opera House in a tribute to Buddy Guy, in a performance that gained a standing ovation from the then President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama. Her career took off exponentially when she started working with Buddy Guy himself and then with Joe Bonamassa.
By 2018 she had ticked all the boxes to be rated as an A-list artiste and versatile performer. Casual listeners will have noticed the grittiness of her voice in many of her most public appearances and probably heard the words ‘fierce’ and ‘aggressive’ used in relation to her most high-profile performances. She is certainly able to express those qualities when appropriate, but it paints a very misleading picture of a person who is almost the opposite in real life.
Beth has lived a life that qualifies her more than almost anybody to sing the blues with authenticity – including trauma, addiction, abandonment and loss. She candidly shared about her periods of mental illness and thankfully has come through them with no apparent damage.
Many people carry a burden like that without ever breaking free. She, on the other hand, has channelled it into her music and performances. Some of her songs illustrate this journey. In those, she presents emotion, passion and sometimes with a surprising amount of humour. She doesn’t demand sympathy. She puts it out there. Everybody benefits from having good friends who will listen to them. For Beth, the audience are her best friends and performing her music to them seems to be the best therapy.
The concert in the New Theatre had its fair share of soulful blues numbers and straight-down-the centre rock, but also included some numbers that were thoughtful, melodic and some with humorous themes. Some of her most popular songs appeared in previous gigs in the tour, but set lists appear to have generally been quite different across the previous UK venues in May and all credit to her band when Beth changes songs, mid-set on a vibe, but they all still work.
Beth is known for her versatile use of the stage space – treating as if it were her front room and the audience were guests. That included sitting cross-legged at the front, dangling legs over the edge or lying down. Regardless of where she was on the stage, or what she was doing, her microphone technique was perfect. Whether sat at her piano for ‘Bad Woman Blues’ or ‘Hero’, or on a stool with her guitar(s) and the rest of the band – as if they were by a campfire singing ‘Ugliest House’ – the music was effortless.
The New Theatre has a ’stop dead’ time that applies to everybody, whoever they are. Beth clearly wanted to fit in as much as possible and didn’t allow herself the indulgence of playing for an encore. Instead, she finished with an exquisite rendition of ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’, followed by ‘Don’t Call The Police’. In the introduction to the former, she told a nice little story about Etta James. Earlier in the evening, she had mentioned Billy Holiday, indicating her reverence for some of the great female blues singers of the past, possibly ignoring the fact that she had already earned her own place on that list.
‘Don’t Call The Police’ would have been a strange choice for a closing song, had it not been for her emotional and heart-felt introduction. She talked about the vibrancy of some of the neighbourhoods which she has lived in or near and concern she has for the welfare of people in the face of injustice and discrimination. The words of the song hit hard. The song made its point. There was applause, and the audience left – quite quietly as Beth would probably have expected.
Beth was backed by her regular band: Jon Nichols (guitar), Todd Wolff (drums) and Tom Lilly (bass). Their talent shone through when needed, but most of the time, they did just what was required. A great band.
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As with other shows on this tour, Beth had Wille and the Bandits as the support act. As advertised, the cut-down version of the band appeared as an acoustic duo. Although they had driven all the way there from their home turf (or should that be ‘surf’) in Cornwall, they looked as if they had just walked off the beach. Lamenting, in their introduction, that they had not bought any pasties with them, they launched into a short, but perfectly performed, set of seven songs.
Wille Edwards played slide and acoustic guitars and provided main vocals. Harry Mackaill also sang and played acoustic guitars, swapping over mid-way through the set to take up playing a very, very small acoustic bass.
It was very small. It might have been a bass ukelele. As well as playing slide, Wille was sitting on a cajon (a box-like percussion instrument from Peru that also doubles as a seat) playing it with a bass pedal using one foot, and a tinkly thing with his other. Whatever, between the two of them they sounded like a full band and spectacular.
Judging by the quality of just half of the band, the prospect of hearing the whole band, sounds like a bit of a treat. Wille and the Bandits (including Stevie Watts on Hammond organ and Zach O’Loughlin on drums), will be back in Oxford at The Bullingdon on 16th September, after returning from their US tour.
Ends…
Review by Richard Byford for Metalplanetmusic.
Photos by Jon Theobald/131 Images for Metalplanetmusic.
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‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source metalplanetmusic.com ’
