Review: Madeleine Peyroux, The Sage Gateshead
by Michael Da Silva, The Journal
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Her pitch perfect performance showcased songs from this year’s release Bare Bones, and previous albums including 2004’s platinum-selling Careless Love.
Dressed in flowing emerald and black, and wearing her trademark bowler hat, there was something quite hippyish to her appearance.
With a battered acoustic guitar off her shoulder, she introduced the show as “pared down to the essentials” which would include an evening of “booze, blues and ballads” - which seemed to go
down well with the audience.
She enthusiastically introduced every song and, despite her low public profile and eschewing publicity, she dominated the stage of a packed Hall One and commanded a real presence in front of her four-piece band.
She cited Bob Dylan and WC Fields as inspiration, with her lyrics poetic like the former and witty like the latter.
The big sound which accompanied her new material at times left her passionate chanteuse vocals drowning under the sound of a prominent bass guitar.
But having honed her talent as a busker on the streets of Paris, Peyroux expertly brought an intimate small club atmosphere to a large arena, and it was her cover of I’ll Be Seeing You and the magnificent I’m All Right, which brought the loudest applause.
Given her rare talent of being able to simultaneously convey contradictory moods and feelings in a song, it is clear to see why she is often compared to Billie Holiday.
On this performance, her second at the Sage, Peyroux’s standing as one of the world’s leading jazz artists in her own right, is totally justified.
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