Beth Hart is currently on her "Up close and personal" tour and all the dates (9 in total) in the Netherlands were sold out in no time. I must admit that I was curious as to how her songs would carry themselves through an acoustic show - and which ones she was going to perform.
Beth draws inspiration for her songs through life experiences: poignant songs aplenty. She has battled her demons and she came out a stronger person - and the Dutch audience love her for that, and her honesty. Her popularity has been slowly but steadily rising in this part of Europe and I think that the release of her DVD "Live at Paradiso" (shot in 2004 and I was there!) is also contributing to this :)
If you like a good rock show then check out the DVD. (I don't get paid for mentioning this, trust me.)
A singer/songwriter named Gus Black opened and although he didn't make a lasting impression on me he was alright. I really liked his renditions of The Who's "Baba O'Riley" and Black Sabbath's "Paranoid".
Beth was accompanied by John Nichols, her ever cool headed guitarist. The setlist consisted of several songs she's written throughout the years (all her well known songs were performed), but she also took requests. I was pleasantly surprised to hear her play "Wash your stinky feet", which she dedicated to her husband *LOL* She hadn't played that song in a while and it's a great example of the fact that she also writes songs that, although obviously rooted in blues, are light and even downright funny.
Beth and John were clearly enjoying the evening and having fun. The audience was invited to come up on stage and sing and/or play along if they felt like it - twice. I regretted at those moments the fact I hadn't played any of her songs in quite a while (I need to dig up those tabs!). At one point she quipped she has to make up new stories, since she was sure the audience has heard all about her shit before. (She's quick to banter.) She also quipped about the fact she had to rearrange her boobs in her top - just like at the Paradiso gig.
While waiting in line to get in earlier that evening, I overheard several women voicing their expectations of this concert, even drawing comparisons to Melissa Etheridge's "Live and alone" tour. Hey now, has this concert gone gay one me? ;) Beth's tour is in no way similar to Etheridge’s aforementioned tour - ok, apart from the (partly) seated audience.
They great thing about Dutch people is that they sometimes really don't give a hoot about what someone's bussiness was in the past: she told the audience at the Pinkpop festival, last May, about one of her brother's girlfriends and that she started dating her after her brother broke up with her *lol* - that's the Geany in "Get your shit together". And I swear that even though the majority of the audience is straight no one batted an eye on hearing that info!
Her encore consisted of "LA song" (Beth's first hit in the Netherlands) and a chilling rendition of "Living under water" and a song she and John often play (born out of jamming together?) and starts with the line "Come on in and drink my gin..." A bunch of people - all volunteers from the audience - were invited to come on stage and sing the chorus. Everybody was having fun, but unfortunately the party was over after that. I'm sure everybody left the venue happy and feeling uplifted. I know I did.
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