short review as I was there
This was my 40th or so David Gray gig but my first in two years - used follow a lot of the earlier gigs in the mid to late 90s etc ..
There was a good crowd at it but it was not sold out. Short support slot from David Kitt as the crowd filled in.
The show was well received by the majority and everyone I spoke to after was pretty happy and impressed by the performance.
The show, imo, was good - very professional but lacked the imtimacy and passion of the earlier gigs. Possibly to be expected given the venue and context - a tent as part of the festival here.
The later albums dominated the setlist - 4 white ladder tracks, none from the first two albums, everytime now from sell sell sell, 4 new tracks - hard to gauge on first listens but two of them stood out - fugitive and one other (jackdaw mentioned in the first line? - can't remember title - jackdaw or jackie perhaps). The rest from the last two albums.
The highlight of the evening for me was the cover of Van's "And it Stoned Me" - wonderful version. Very focussed passionate believable performance.
The crowd in general responded enthusiastically throughout particulary for This year's love and Please forgive me.
The audience dynamics throughout were entertaining - lots of singing along; not all good - had to move once to escape the horrendous loud butchering of the tunes by these two 'fans' - wonderfully bad singing. I was somewhere between annoyed at the intrusion and laughing at the sheer awfulness of the singing. The new songs were treated with less attention - most were there for the sing-a-long aspect and in fairness, David Gray responded and gave his best to cover the 'hits'.
The new songs and the cover though, imo, received more attention from the performaer and I got the impression, he was more interested and committed in the performance of these.
Overall, a good show, but not like the great shows of several years ago.
Obvioulsy a subjective view and I have to admit to liking the more stripped down sound of his first three albums and the white album demos, lost songs etc. I was hoping throughout for a return to these or a rare rendition of Northern sea or something like that. Also have to admit, I think I was in the minority with this view. Most people seemed to be really pleased with the gig.