David Gray, Symphony Hall, Birmingham - review with PICTURES
"Friday night I’m going nowhere, all the lights are changing green to red" - fortunately the opening line from Babylon was not the case heading along the Birmingham New Road to the fantastic Birmingham Symphony Hall to see multi platinum-selling David Gray perform including songs from his first new album in four years, Brass In A Gold Age.
Taking to the stage following support from a very talented and interesting L.A. Salami, the crowd’s reaction to this new material is appreciative but rather rather muted.
When you have such iconic hits in your repertoire it’s understandable for fans to want to skip the new in favour of their eagerly awaited favourites performed in the acoustically superb venue.
Gray, when he does interact with the audience, is sharp and witty – he should converse more often as the concert needed a little more punch at the start. The new music with full backing is good but band though superb musicians were seemingly deeply absorbed and as a spectacle just a bit too controlled.
New music introduced, Gray thanked the audience for their appreciation and moved into a formidable back catalogue. For me the whole concert was lifted when the band temporarily left the stage and he performed solo.
The eagerly awaited rousing hit Sail Away, from the White Ladder album, saw the audience finally get lifted.
Nostalgia, as always, plays a big factor. It is an incredible fine line mixing the old with the new and with Gray’s many hit songs, especially Babylon, truly standing the test of time, getting the whole room loudly involved it will ever be the case.
Gray is a fantastic singer live and this venue is quite the most superb place to fully appreciate the great lyrics delivered with a warm, slightly gravel textured vocal .
Overall the set promoting Gray’s eleventh album of his 25-year career, showing a distinct change in direction musical direction, incorporating new electronic sounds and layered guitar, is good but not great.
As a spectacle it was also quite a strange stage format, Gray switching quickly from guitar to keyboard very regularly but the angle of the keyboard to the audience meant half the crowd mostly saw the back of his head and the middle seats his profile. It just seemed a missed opportunity for the audience from a visual perspective.
Fine musician, fine performer just a touch of something more needed to give the overall experience the lift it deserves.
Review by Dave Cox
