Entertainment For Lively Minds
Rickie Lee Jones performing her eponymous first album and Pirates
Posted by Roy Levy on 27 November 2011 - 1:30pm.
When:
Saturday 26th November 2011
Where:
Royal Festival Hall
Comments:
Two songs in, RLJ begins dancing and I think if only her voice remained as supple as her body obviously has. Nervousness and tredipation at revisiting old songs from sad times are clearly having an effect. But doubts roll away as she and the band languidly stroll through "Easy Money" after which the groove is struck, Rickie finds her vocal range and we're off on a moonlit ride through the deserted truck stops, diners, and train stations that form the landscape of her gritty and tender songs. A great band are beautifully attuned to the unique idiosyncracies of RLJ's music. Big emotional peaks followed by passages delivered at a whisper, Rickie's voice a little girl whine one moment, a deep masculine bellow the next. High points: Traces of the Western Slopes, Weasel and the White Boys Cool, Company, Woody & Dutch. Special mentions for Jeff Pevar on guitars and a three man horn section that regularly ambled on stage, discovered RLJ had switched the running order and ambled off again.
The Audience:
Couples, mostly 50-something former boho types, possibly employed in education or arts administration.
Food & Drink:
Rough Cretan raki in a plastic bottle supplied by a member of our party did the job nicely, followed by an after-gig RFH lager in a plastic beaker.
It Made Me Think...:
The intensity of RLJ’s songs means it's impossible for her to go through the motions in performance. She really has to occupy that emotional space, which can clearly be quite a challenging and difficult thing to do. Does that sound pretentious ?
I just came on to post this myself
It was quite a performance, but she did take a little warming up, as did the sound . Is there any excuse for a gig in a concert hall, in 2011, to not have perfect sound right from the off?
I was talking to a friend today, a sound engineer, who was there
He was very scathing about the sound, set up and kit used.
Wish i could have been there!
Saw her in Edinburgh's Queen's Hall earlier this year (I think...) and she was fantastic: just her and two backing musicians; great set and wonderful singing.
Saw her around the time of "Pop, Pop", too, and she was tremendous then, but much more irascible - one of the sweariest gigs I've ever been at! Oh, just remembered that I saw her a time in between those gigs...and she was great!
It would appear that I think she's great, hence my wish that I could have been at the London gig. Must have been a really cool song-list that she worked from. Oh well...
She played all of those first two albums
...though neither was played in order.
Missed it - damn!
I forgot all about this. I love RLJ. B#llucks. Bet it was fab - sounds like it.
BTW - last time I was at the RFH the sound wasn't great either.