It’s a hot one and after a lovely meal at Joe Allen’s across the road we make our way to probably the most middle aged gig of my year. It’s not a criticism per se but for me this was a beige gig. The venue was OK, the audience were OK, the band were OK, the lighting was OK, Legend though was better than OK but there was nothing to get me excited. The view though was clearly not shared by my wife and most of the audience who loved it.
I may be becoming a gig snob but when this was probably one of say a couple of gigs that most of the audience were going to this year then I can see why they enjoyed it so much. For me I just need to look back a couple of weeks to the Jack White and LCD Soundsystem gigs for energy, spontaneity and excitement. Tonight just felt all too heavily scripted, a set list that’s repeated for every show, the adlibs are probably the same and the words London are just replaced with whatever city they are in. But to be clear I am a fan of Legend. I think his voice is outstanding and his first two albums are excellent but his recent outputs have been a little patchy for me.
Not much else to say about the show itself. It was fine. The set was a bit patchy with some interesting but too many covers and of course the oldies stood out with classics such as ‘Ordinary People’, ‘Used to love you’ and ‘Save room’ all getting an outing.
So a decent show and pleasant way to spend a warm Saturday evening but will not live long in the memory especially when compared to other shows of his we have seen.
Keep on soulful rockin’ y’all.