Nils Lofgren - 11/1/2015

I can't say I'd heard any solo stuff when booking these tickets but I rated him as a guitarist from his Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen days. In fact that was what was delivered - great guitar playing - the singing and the songwriting were nothing to write home about for me. Bizzarely the gig started with Nils on harp, as in stringed harp, which was basically an extended intro to 'Too Many Miles' in which he demonstrated right away what a superb guitar player he is. The style is fluid but with bite as well and he is not afraid to play extended solo. The other musician playing with Nils was Greg Varlotta and he did a good job on keyboards and some guitar and even a bit of trumpet. Highlights on the guitar front from Nils were 'Girl in Motion', 'Keith Don't Go' and 'Because the Night' which is just a genuinely brilliant song anyway. Nils also teased with a story about how he suggested the and played the uptempo piano bits on 'Southern Man' gave us a quick taster of it but then didn't play the damn song. Still I enjoyed the gig a lot just because he is a fine guitarist which is pretty much what I htought when I saw him with Springsteen a lot of years ago.

First Aid Kit 14/1/2015

The support was Kimberley Anne, a singer songwriter with a guitar who would loop some simple drumming accompaniment from time to time. It was interesting stuff with a bit of bite in the lyrics and she had a nice stage presence chatting with the audience. I particularly liked ‘Liar’ although the whole set was of a good quality. She had something of a Joan Armatrading about her and sounded very English but there was also a feel of Tracy Chapman in the sound of some of the songs. That's a couple of good references. First Aid Kit came with two band members, a drummer and a pedal steel guitarist/lead guitarist who were both excellent. I only know their last two albums but pretty much all of the songs from their shortish set came from them and the selection was good. The only other songs were a couple of covers and a song they did at the front of the stage unmiked. That was 'Ghost Town' from an earlier album. The covers were the brilliant 'Love Interruption' (Jack White)and strangely since the song had come up in conversation that very day 'Waterloo Sunset' (The Kinks). The thing about First Aid Kit is the voices in harmony but Klara does most of the vocal heavy lifting and she is a superb singer. The other thing is that the songs are a great mixture of folky and pop and so the gig is quite uplifting. They kicked off with 'The Lions Roar' and then 'Stay Gold'. They finished a mere hour and a quarter or so later with their best song for me 'Emmylou'. In between they included the excellent 'My Silver Lining' and one track that stood out for me live which was 'Shattered and Hollow'. It came across with a bit more gravitas live than on the record. I was sorry they didn't play 'Cedar Lane' or 'The Fleeting One'. Maybe if they do a longer set they could include them next time.