Maddie and all that Jazz
Madeleine Peyroux - Bridgewater Hall, Manchester (16th April 2007)
The day leading up to the show was fraut, to say the least, but it turned into a great evening. I'd bought the tickets for the show a few months before, but not told the better half anything about it until the morning of the show when I told her we'd be going out that night, so "dress smart-casual". We got to the Bridgewater Hall in good time and then she realised what she was about to see. She was pleasantly surprised, which was a blessed relief. One drink and a wander around the lovely Bridgewater later and we took our seats on the left side balcony. We had a good view of the stage, which was great.
The support was some crazy cat from Denmark called MC Hansen. He played guitar and harmonica Dylan-style and was pretty good. I liked his playing and his songs were quirky and fun. So that was great. Some fat, old twat was trying to be funny to his missus behind us and they left half way through, so that was good. Anyway, I liked the act enough to go downstairs during the changeover to buy his CD and say "hello". the man signed my CD and we had a quick chat. Nice fella... (Next day amendment. Listened to the CD in the car a few times yesterday, great stuff. Go get it!)
Maddie (as we'll call her from here on) and band took the stage promptly (I love "civilised" gigs) at 8.50pm and proceeded to play a great 90 minute set to a receptive audience. The sound was pretty clear and clean, although the lead guitar was a little loud in places, but this is only a minor complaint. Then again, I expected nothing less as the Bridgewater Hall is designed to be the best place to hear music. I did have to laugh at the sagely words from some old duffer after the show who was complaining to his mate that "they kept pointing to the soundman at the side of the stage to tell him to turn it up and down, he should have been doing the sound at the front". Being the smug type that I am, I resisted the urge to tell him that they were motioning to the monitor man controlling their on-stage sound and not to the bloke they DID have at the back controlling the PA. I think he did a fine job and it's always going to sound different upstairs than it would downstairs... Anyway, enough of that.
The band were fantastic. They played everything with the required light touch, but with enough punch to drive the music on nicely. The pianist was fantastic, really, his playing was so good, so expressive. The rhythm section were great too. The bass player was always throwing in mad solos with the drummer putting his bits in too. Great interplay.
Maddie gave us a great selection of songs from across her albums and was well-in there with talking-it-up to the crowd, which we didn't expect. We were dubious about it as she was very quiet and a little out-of-it when we saw her perform on the Jules Holland New Year show a few months ago. It turns out that she's a true entertainer! We were given a good range of slower numbers and more upbeat tunes (although she didn't do "Walking After Midnight") with a fair bit of soloing from the band. I wish I could remember the setlist, but if I find it on t'internet, I'll post it here.
One downer to the show was the pissing annoying woman infront of me, who kept sitting forward and blocking the view with her fucking fat 'ead. Luckily, she sat back during the second song and gave me a perfect view for some covert movie making (see the shaky clip below, folks!) She did proceed to fidget through the entire show, which was more annoying than my constant knee-drumming, WAY MORE! Really, she should have stayed home and bought the DVD... Her fella looked miserable too, come to think of it.
All in all, it was a great show and we both enjoyed it. Kez had a bit of a coughing fit during a quiet number, but the only thing that came from that was a red-face for her, so that was OK :) Would I go and see Maddie again? Yeah, why not... She was tops.
Maddie: The Movie
The video is in FLV format and should stream quite quickly to your computer. Excuse the distorted sound, the microphone on the camera isn't the best when recording high-volume noise. Please be patient if the video doesn't load immediately.
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© 2006 Graham T. Ebbrell