The dates are coming up thick and fast for music at The Piece Hall, and it’s a bit of a curveball on this one, Amy Macdonald. It must have taken big kahunas to book a venue that is way more than twice the size of the normal-sized venues she normally plays and as I headed over to Halifax I noticed it wasn’t a sell-out, so was this going to be a step too far for the diminutive Scottish lass?
Nathan Evans
Making it in with the 1st support, literally firing up as we walked through the gates, was Nathan Evans, an enthusiastic young Scottish lad with a love for Country music, and it would appear he already has a following, as the barrier was already pretty busy with folk who clearly knew his work.
Now, Country Music isn’t my normal cup of tea, and it puzzles me as to why so many Scottish musicians are heading in that direction, as I don’t see the link myself, but Nathan was quite entertaining and at ease with the growing crowd arriving in front of him and said crowd were happy to interact, so I’d consider that a win for him – even if he didn’t quite manage to get me on board..
The Coral.
An odd fit in for the 2nd band to support Amy, they’re not the first band that would immediately spring to mind as a support for her but you certainly should know what you’re getting with The Coral as they have to have been around for what seems like forever. Like an old comforter, they warmly hugged you through a set that doesn’t offend, doesn’t really excite you, but delivers with a satisfaction that can only come from a career lasting several decades..
Amy Macdonald
I’ve seen Amy several times before, in tiny venues as well as larger theatres, but never headlining a venue of this size and it was going to be interesting to see how she might handle a venue of this size; the set wasn’t going to be huge with a curfew at 10.30 pm looming and her not hitting the stage till 9.15 pm, indeed one of the first things she mentioned early on was panicking about cutting songs before it arrived.
There was plenty of home country support that had come down to the venue, with plenty of Scottish flags and hats with the flag printed on and the cheer when she addressed the crowd after openers Is This What You’ve Been Waiting For from her latest album of the same name and older track The Hudson which they made themselves known when Amy Mentioned the World Cup with cheers ringing out in near equal measure to the boo’s from the English…
Fan favourite Mr Rock & Roll brought the crowd to the party and Woman of the World kept it up there but the direction of Don’t Tell Me That Its Over then Run certainly killed off the party atmosphere, indeed, for a lady in front of me it obviously hit home with her as she was in floods of tears, I’m guessing Amy has been helping her through something difficult lately.
Slow It Down, another fan fav, was put into action to raise spirits once again, which it truly succeeded in doing with “downy down downs” from the audience echoing off the balcony walls within The Piece Hall. Poison Prince kept things going before Amy switched to another recent track, Can You Hear Me – she’s never been afraid to take folk on a musical rollercoaster and to do a Scottish favourite, The Glen, a Beluga Lagoon cover in England where it’s pretty unheard of was a risky move, it was over to the Scots to carry this one – and they certainly tried hard enough to do so.
Statues finished off the main set before the Encore that wasn’t an encore, as there was no pretending to leave the stage only to come back on again – I don’t actually think she has ever done in all the times I’ve seen her, so maybe it’s time-saving, maybe it’s being lazy, but to be honest I prefer it.
The “Encore” was kicked off with This Is The Life followed by Barrowland Ballroom (complete with the iconic Glasgow venue’s neon signs on the stage screen) and finished off with Let’s Start A Band, an odd decision I thought, as it would have ended the night better being the other way round…
So, whilst as I previously mentioned, the gig wasn’t a sell-out, it wasn’t a disaster for her by any stretch. I would say that the crowd was comfortably large, people had space to move and dance, and there wasn’t any dead open space on the plaza when looking around the magnificent site so maybe not the night she had hoped for, but it was fairly close; the only thing that let it down overall was the sound.
It seems to be pretty hard to screw that up in The Piece Hall, it was all a bit “muggy” on the night, maybe it’s a lack of experience with outside venues with her sound engineers on this tour but it was all mids with very little on top and thin down low, it wasn’t a deal breaker on the night but it did taint it a bit for the party I was with.
📸 Credit Rhodes Media
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