M. Ward – Shepherds Bush Empire, London
One of the great things about the summer festival season is the number of international acts who pop-up doing their own headline shows while in town.
Such is the case with M.Ward – who I absolutely love, but have only seen perform once before when he supported Beth Orton on one of her Australian tours.
That show was solo acoustic – so it was great to see Matt with a four-piece band tonight (strangely, all of whom wore stylish hats).
Always a fan of a good cover-version, the early part of the set included his subdued call-and-response take on Buddy Holly’s “Rave On” amongst newer material including the title track to his recently released sixth album ‘Hold Time’.
A mid-set solo acoustic bracket including his much loved cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and a great version of “Fuel For Fire” from his fourth album ‘Transistor Radio’.
Rebecca Stark, lead singer with support act Lavender Diamond joined for harmony vocals on a great version of “Magic Trick”. A rollicking “Never Had Nobody Like You” – one of my favorite tracks from the new album, was good but sadly missing the lovely Zooey Deschanel on harmony. Closing the main set with a blistering cover of “Roll Over Beethoven” that gave Matt the chance to let out some ripping guitar solos.
The short encore started with the John Fahey instrumental “Bean Vine Blues, No. 2” and also included a great bar-room piano heavy reading of “Big Boat”.
Such is the case with M.Ward – who I absolutely love, but have only seen perform once before when he supported Beth Orton on one of her Australian tours.
That show was solo acoustic – so it was great to see Matt with a four-piece band tonight (strangely, all of whom wore stylish hats).
Always a fan of a good cover-version, the early part of the set included his subdued call-and-response take on Buddy Holly’s “Rave On” amongst newer material including the title track to his recently released sixth album ‘Hold Time’.
A mid-set solo acoustic bracket including his much loved cover of David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” and a great version of “Fuel For Fire” from his fourth album ‘Transistor Radio’.Rebecca Stark, lead singer with support act Lavender Diamond joined for harmony vocals on a great version of “Magic Trick”. A rollicking “Never Had Nobody Like You” – one of my favorite tracks from the new album, was good but sadly missing the lovely Zooey Deschanel on harmony. Closing the main set with a blistering cover of “Roll Over Beethoven” that gave Matt the chance to let out some ripping guitar solos.
The short encore started with the John Fahey instrumental “Bean Vine Blues, No. 2” and also included a great bar-room piano heavy reading of “Big Boat”.
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