Beth Orton in Philly 6/4/99 I had the pleasure of seeing Beth Orton at the Theater of Living Arts in Philly on Friday night. The show was sold out, but since the TLA is a nice venue, it wasn't sardine-esque, even 2nd-3rd row center, where I was. The opening act was Kelly Willis, who was definitely a country act, with a bit of Jewel thrown in. Neither of which I like in the least, but her set was tolerable, and the crowd was very polite (I always feel sorry for opening bands!). She and her band played for about 45 minutes. Beth came on at about 10:15. The crowd gave her HUGE applause when she came out, and she smiled and said "You can't possibly love me yet, I haven't done anything!". She was dressed in a pink/beige 70's style polyester midriff shirt with a drawstring-type neck, 70's style blue/grey pants, and heeled boots (if you're interested in that sort of thing!). She seemed slightly nervous for the first few songs (not near as much as on Letterman, though!), and during "Love Like Laughter", she looked directly at me mouthing along with the words, and smiled. I think it was reassuring to her that people actually DID know her music all the way over here! After that song, someone in the crowd shouted "NOW we love you!", and it was definitely indicitive of the whole crowd's feelings. She was in a really good mood, talking alot with the crowd, giving witty responses back to random crowd shouts (mostly from the drunks in the balcony), saying after some of the slower songs "ok, time to cheer up a bit", obviously not wanting the concert to get too heavy. (She sorta skipped on and off stage for the encores, too!) Points of interest: 1. She played "Devil Song" for the first time ever live (at least that's what she told us!) 2. She messed up some of the words in "Best Bit", but before she started, she said "I'm going to attempt to play this now, not sure how it'll turn out..." 3. Before "Whenever", she pulled out a fax-paper and said that she'd received an email from that a friend of theirs had died in a car accident that week, and that she would've been at the concert had it not been for the tragedy, and they asked if she could dedicate "Whenever" to their friend. Beth then dedicated the entire concert to her memory. 4. I was AMAZED by the translation of the more electronic songs (ie: "Stars all Seem to Weep", "Central Reservation", "Touch Me With Your Love", etc) into guitar and drum kit songs. They did an incredible job at making them still the same song, but with a completely different sound. Her band's technical ability should be praised for that alone. 5. Her last encore started with just her and her guitarist, then ended with ONLY Beth on "Feel to Believe", my personal favorite of hers. (She was so cute, concentrating so hard of the big chord changes) Setlist: Someone's Daughter Love Like Laughter Touch Me With Your Love So Much More Couldn't Cause Me Harm She Cries Your Name Sugar Boy Devil Song Best Bit Sweetest Decline Whenever Stars All Seem to Weep Blood Red River ---- Central Reservation (a cross between the original & Then Again versions) Stolen Car ---- I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine Feel to Believe (She played for about 1.5-2 hours!) End Note: I got to meet her afterwards, got my Trailer Park liner notes signed, and asked her about Letterman. She said that she was rather nervous, and didn't enjoy the experience at all. Summary: The concert was incredible. Her voice is simply one of the strongest and best I've ever heard, and she was stright 'on' all night. HIGHLY recommended live performance.