LIVE REVIEWS
2023 has been a transformative year for Jessie Ware. The London singer’s fifth album, April’s ‘That! Feels Good!’ saw an already successful singer soar into an exclusive realm: “mother” status.
Ware has experienced a boost in the size of her distinctly, vocally queer fanbase, who embrace her for the powerful femininity she exudes; her songs position her as a high priestess of self-love and carnal pleasure, framed by gorgeous melismas that cascade like party poppers. She has aligned herself directly with the LGBTQ+ community, showing her allyship in subtle ways (attending London marches in support of trans people) and the not-so-subtle (dishing out slyly funny critique as a guest judge on season two of RuPaul’s Drag Race UK).
There’s a sincere understanding from Ware that speaking directly to this portion of her audience can create loyal, lifelong fans; in return, they have helped her step into her power. At the first of two sold-out hometown gigs at Alexandra Palace, 10,000 people go nuts at whatever she does on stage – particularly when she brandishes a whip as a mic stand throughout a scintillating ‘What’s Your Pleasure?’. The sheer force of the crowd’s devotion is palpable: they whoop and snap their fingers in awe of the Vegas-level glitz. All of this takes on extra significance when Ware announces that, over a decade into career, she is performing her biggest headline show to date.
These moments are no doubt intended to make us feel as if we’re part of a journey. Ware maintains a permanent grin all night. ‘Lightning’, a skippable track from ‘That! Feels Good!’, becomes an unexpected highlight as two supersized mirrorballs refract against each other, leaving the venue bathed in freckles of white light. ‘Beautiful People’ – complete with leather boots and calls for audience participation via easy-to-follow choreography – is delivered with an eyebrow raised knowingly at the ludicrousness of it all.
However over the top things may get, Ware keeps the attention on the music. She includes early hits (‘Say You Love Me’, ‘Selfish Love’) and revels in an extended mix of ‘Spotlight’, a sparkling career highlight. Before launching into the latter, she offers a conclusion filled with promise and ambition: “I’m five albums in, and I feel like I’ve got so much more to do.” It’s clear that this show represents a time of reckoning not just for Ware herself, but for anyone who views her as a ray of light in an increasingly gloomy world.
‘That! Feels Good!’
‘Shake The Bottle’
‘Ooh La La’
‘Pearls’
‘Selfish Love’
‘Begin Again’
‘Lightning’
‘Hello Love’
‘Remember Where You Are’
‘Say You Love Me’
‘Hot N Heavy’
‘Freak Me Now’
‘Overtime / Adore You’
‘Mirage (Don’t Stop)’
‘What’s Your Pleasure?’
‘Spotlight’
‘Save A Kiss’
‘Beautiful People’
‘Believe’ (Cher cover)
‘Free Yourself’
Kacey Musgraves has cast a spell across London’s Roundhouse. Dry ice shrouds the Texan artist and her 8-piece band in a hazy mist, the lighting dramatic – at times it evokes the break of dawn, others a thunderous rainstorm. And at the eye of this hurricane is Musgraves, her luminous vocals shining as brightly as the disco ball that’s illuminated during a rousing rendition of ‘Anime Eyes’. With the audience — who obey requests to be in the moment and not just view the gig through a lens — enraptured, the ethereal magic of the live show threads throughout.
Tonight’s gig is part of the ‘Deeper Well World Tour’, the shows accompanying Musgraves’ sixth studio album released earlier this year. It’s a record that saw her “navigating new beginnings”, as she said about its titular track: “Sometimes you reach a crossroads. Winds change direction. What you once felt drawn to doesn’t hold the same allure. You get blown off course but eventually find your footing and forage for new inspiration, new insight and deeper love somewhere else”. Or, as she more succinctly reflects in its chorus: “And I’ve got to take care of myself/I found a deeper well”.
This live setting, with the lush arrangements delivered by Musgraves’ double-denim clad band, is where the songs shine, the resilience and complex emotions they convey shining through. The power of opener ‘Cardinal’ ricochets through the venue accompanied by fleshed out instrumentals, while the lilting ‘The Architect’’s quietly questioning lyrics resonate in their subtle accompaniment.
Tracks that faded into the background on ‘Deeper Well’ at times work better here, too. ‘Jade Green’ is taken from a subdued slow burn into a thundering storm, Musgraves swathed in lights of the titular colour, strobes evoking lightning and crashes of percussion closing out the song, before the chaos subsides into a musical ‘Rainbow’. ‘Lonely Millionaire’, meanwhile, is elevated in this setting, the slinky track coming with mass sing-a-longs.
Yet for all the mysticism and magic when the music is playing, in-between songs Musgraves charms in a very different way. Her breezy wit juxtaposed with gut-wrenching music reminiscent of fellow on-stage entertainers Adele or Lewis Capaldi. As the band gear up for a quieter point in the set and huddle in closer at the front of the stage, Musgraves delights the audience with her tight-5 about the food poisoning and stomach upset she started the tour with, which soon spread around her touring party like wildfire. How did we get onto this story? An audience heckle that sounded a bit like a Spice Girl prompting Musgraves to reveal “I met Sporty the other day and almost shat myself! Speaking of…”
That’s not to say this humour isn’t also evident in Musgraves music — the excellent couplet “If you save yourself for marriage, you’re a bore/You don’t save yourself for marriage, you’re a hor-rible person” is sung with gusto by the crowd, in a stripped back rendition of ‘Follow Your Arrow’ (a cut from Musgraves’ debut studio record ‘Same Trailer Different Park’). And there’s rousing renditions of the jubilant kiss-off ‘High Horse’, and the eye-roll at an insecure ex on ‘Breadwinner’.
As she closes with a cover of Bob Marley & The Wailers’ ‘Three Little Birds’ and a short snippet of ‘Easier Said’, Musgraves tells the audience: “I hope your well has been deepened”. With the spell-binding communal magic of being in the moment and Musgraves’ powerhouse performance, we don’t doubt they have.
Kacey Musgraves played:
‘Cardinal’
‘Moving Out’
‘Deeper Well’
‘Sway’
‘Too Good to Be True’
‘Butterflies’
‘Happy & Sad’
‘Lonely Weekend’
‘Lonely Millionaire’
‘Follow Your Arrow’
‘The Architect’
‘Nothing to Be Scared Of’
‘Heaven Is’
‘Jade Green’
‘Rainbow’
‘Golden Hour’
‘Anime Eyes’
‘Don’t Do Me Good’
‘Justified’
‘Breadwinner’
‘High Horse’
‘Slow Burn’
‘Three Little Birds’ (Bob Marley & The Wailers cover)
‘Easier Said’
