PJ Harvey - Royal Festival Hall

An amazing PJ Harvey show at Royal Festival Hall to support her new release ‘White Chalk’.
Playing solo, PJ moved from electric guitar for raw readings of older material like “Mansize” and “Rid Of Me” to open the encore; keyboards; acoustic guitar, harp and piano.
The just released ‘White Chalk’ is very piano-centric, and of the new album material “When Under Ether” and “The Devil” stood out performed solo at the piano.
It was also great to hear “Down by The Water” driven by drum machine and a bed of simple keyboards. And “Angelene” featured an incredible mix of keywords and strummed harp.
It was also great to see PJs dour image slip a little as she made a few jokes, especially around a misbehaving drum machine which she eventually placed “in the naughty corner” of the stage.
All in all a mesmerizing ninety minutes – with older songs like “Big Exit” jostling alongside newer material like “Shame” reminding you how a great a talent PJ Harvey is.


main set:
to bring you my love
send his love to me
when under ether
the devil
white chalk
man-size
angelene
my beautiful leah
nina in ecstasy
electric light
shame
snake
big exit
down by the water
grow grow grow
the mountain
silence

encore:
rid of me
water
the piano
the desperate kingdom of love