Joe Henry - Meltdown Festival, London

Went with my buddy Ross to the SouthBank Centre to see Joe Henry and his 3-piece band perform as part of the Richard Thompson curated Meltdown Festival. What an absolutely fantastic show - amazing sound, top-flight performances, and a fairly good selection of material considering he notoriously doesn't perform any material from his more country-orientated material, thus excluding anything pre-1996's 'Trampoline'.
A big change from the last time I saw Joe Henry play was he released a new album 'Blood From Stars' last year. Tonights show drew very heavily from that record - making up the bulk of the mainset and 8 of the first 10 songs played.
It's clearly material Joe's band know best, so they excelled on opened "Bellwether" and "The Man I Keep Hid" later in the set. Drummer Jay Bellerose was spell-binding to watch perform at such close quarters, but it was the baby-faced tenor saxphone player Levon Henry, who played on about half the set, that seemed to assert the most influence on the songs. Joe Henry mostly played acoustic guitar, although he did switch to grand piano for a few songs - although he warned the audience it wasn't his forte ("you know how they say most people while they're driving shouldn't text? Well for me playing the piano is like scaling a fish while I'm driving. Hard to do..... but I'm just so hungry").
For me, the show really took flight towards the end of the main set - with a mesmerizing run of songs from "The Man I Keep Hid" into "Flag", a great version of his Madonna co-write "Stop" (which she recorded as "Don't Tell Me"), a brilliant "Trampoline", before closing with "Our Song" and "Civilians" both from his second-to-last album 'Civilians'.
Unfortunately the SouthBank Centre has very strict curfews - so after a great main set there was only time left the band time to return for a sole encore, a medley of "Edgar Begen" into the old standard "I've Got You Under My Skin".

Full setlist:

1. Bellwether
2. Channel
3. Progress of Love (Dark Ground)
4. This Is My Favorite Cage
5. Sold
6. All Blues Hail Mary
7. Lighthouse
8. Truce
9. Suit On A Frame
10. The Man I Keep Hid
11. Flag
12. Stop
13. Trampoline
14. Our Song
15. Civilians

16. Edgar Bergen / I've Got You Under My Skin

Powderfinger - Brixton Academy, London

After a month delay amid volcanic ash flying confusion, we finally got to see Powderfinger for their final show in London. Back when we booked these shows it was part of the ‘Golden Rule’ tour, but once the band announced they will cease touring at the end of this year, the whole European tour became the first-leg of their ‘Sunsets’ final tour.

Considering this would be the last time the band would play in London – it was a little sad to see the balcony section we had tickets for less than half full. Still what the crowd lacked in numbers they made up for in volume – as Bernard Fanning commented a few times during the show – at one point calling it the best audience they had ever had in London.

Among the four of us attending the show tonight: Kim, plus our friends Nick & Rach – there seemed to be a general consensus of mixed feelings. Obviously everyone was disappointed that a great band was calling it a day. However it did mean the show tonight featured many of Powderfingers finest songs – and only 2 from the new album the opening “Burn Your Name” and “A Fight About Money” early in the set. I imagine if the show had remained part of the album tour as originally intended the material performed would have differed dramatically.

Still – it was the last show in London so the band pulled out a lot of their back catalogue – dipping back into ‘Internationalist’ for “Don’t Want to Be Left Out”, “Passenger” and a fantastic version of “Already Gone” with an extended bluesy harmonica intro.

I also really enjoyed the first encore which saw “On My Mind” merged into a cover of The Rolling Stones “Paint It Black”. Before returning for a second and final encore of “These Days”.

Full setlist:

1. Burn your name
2. Lost & running
3. Waiting for the sun
4. Don't wanna be left out
5. A fight about money
6. My kind of scene
7. Love your way
8. Thrilloilogy
9. Already gone
10. Sunsets
11. Passenger
12. Pick you up
13. Bless my soul
14. Nobody sees
Encore
15. Baby I've got you on my mind / Paint it black
16. My happiness
Encore 2
17. These days