As some of you may be aware, I opened the Abbaye’s forecourt on Monday evening, with a DJ set, choosing to do so with London Grammar’s ‘Lose Your Head’ and then slaloming through many genres for a two-hour journey/ramshackle display that featured Blue Swede, Foals, Bill Withers, Miley Cyrus and Joy Division. Yep, it was that kind of night.
On a balmy but breezy evening in the capital, one where it was warm enough to melt your 3€ Cornetto a mere few seconds after helping it on its route from wrapper to facehole, hundreds of punters had queued outside the doors ahead of opening, presumably to get to the front of stage at this sold-out show (promoted by den Atelier).
George Ezra has split the Today Radio team like no other artist. Even in my own family, three quarters of us love singing along to ‘Budapest’ while one (the youngest) begs for it to be turned off, right, the flip, now.
Yes, it is true, there are elements of George Ezra’s showmanship and indeed catalogue that can rankle and irritate. There’s the whole middle to upper class-isms of it all for one thing. Yet people tend to rather quickly forget that artists like Frank Turner were hardly struggling in their youth, heck let’s not even get started on The Clash’s real roots. Maybe it’s the whole anodyne, non-threatening, boy next door politeness and all that.
Further reading/listening: Song 2 - George Ezra Budapest
For some, it’s the deep and dulcet voice that they can’t quite get on board with. For me, though, as one not immune to a little bit of nose thumbing, all I want from a concert is to be entertained. To throw my arms aloft. To clap in (terrible) time at the carefully placed parts in the song where the chorus gets played just one more time and just a little bit ‘turnt up’. On occasion I want to be willfully manipulated into sharing a moment with a few thousand other like-minded souls. After all, isn’t that what pop music is supposed to be about?
George takes to stage at bang on 9pm - proving that what GnR can do at Glasto, he can do in the GD, as Tom Jones’ ‘It’s Not Unusual’ fades out. Decked out in double-denim (stone wash and black) and swinging his guitar, Ezra appears happy and relaxed. He’s not been back on the road that long after having taken some time out to look after himself (he suffers from Pure O – “purely obsessional” – a form of OCD that sees the sufferer experience distressing intrusive thoughts without the physical compulsions, imposter syndrome, and intense loneliness), and his patois to, and with the crowd, throughout the 90mins he’s on stage is rife with pretty standard tokenisms, asking us to singalong, or to really sing the ‘next bit’, or.. in a moment that does rate high on the cringe-o-meter, ‘get ready to party’.
But party is what we did, grasping our deposit heavy beer cups during ‘Anyone For You’, shaking our ample rumps at ‘Green Green Grass,’ doing that gruff bit during a rollicking ‘Blame It On Me,’ shouting along to ‘Cassy O’,’ getting a little bit sincere to ‘Hold My Girl’, really loving the dropped D during a barnstorming ‘Saviour’, and then being swept along by a wonderful ‘Pretty Shining People,’ we are never far from a hit. Nor, it should be said, are we far from a little detour as rock and samba segues join the dots. There’s trumpet, there’s sax, there’s a moment where some of the band members act as hype men, imploring the audience to raise the energy and raise their hands.
But it’s during ‘Budapest,’ ‘Paradise’ and the inevitable encore of ‘Shotgun,’ which Ezra says the band close every show with, that his appeal really shines through. Yes, the songs may be simple and scandal may not follow him around as closely as it does more ‘interesting’ superstars, but he knows how to pen a ditty. Simply looking around at the faces in the crowd and seeing genuine happiness radiating out was a lovely sight indeed.
So, thank you George, your’s was a wonderful show, one where there were a few genuine surprises, and one where I can honestly say, without fear of reproach from the Grand Duchy’s beard-stroking society, I had a lovely time with your band and your songs.
N.B: I met George with my son before the show, he was affable, gentle and genuinely interested in talking to us...he had no idea Luxembourg was so lovely.
