BETH HART + WILLE AND THE BANDITS – BRIGHTON DOME 30.11.24
Beth Hart arrives at Brighton Dome as part of her very extensive world tour promoting her ‘You Still Got Me’ album. Will she be as good live as her album suggests?
Before we find out the answer to that particular question, support act Wille And The Bandits walk onstage. For their current tour there are only two of them: Wille Edwards on guitar and lap steel, and Harry Mackaill on guitar and acoustic bass. So strictly speaking they’re Willie And The Bandit. For a duo they make a really good noise. Wille Edwards has wonderfully impassioned bluesy vocals and plays a mean lap steel. Harry Mackaill mostly plays rhythm guitar, but switches to acoustic bass guitar later in the set.
‘Got To Do Better’ touches on the current wars in progress. Wille is on acoustic guitar, playing slide and fingerpicking. It’s cracking acoustic blues. During Covid Wille was under the impression that he could feed his family by fishing from his paddle board. He was wrong. ‘When The World Stood Still’ is about Covid and particularly lockdown, and the different ways in which that affected people. It’s a very reflective and moving song. ‘Four Million Days’ is slower than the rest of the material so far. It features some sweet finger-picked acoustic lead, and some nice harmonising from Harry Mackaill.
With ‘Keep It On The Down-Low’ Wille tells us that they’re going to “try to get a bit funky”. This they do with aplomb. Harry is now on acoustic bass guitar, which sounds surprisingly meaty. The final song of this all too short set is ‘Crossroad Blues’ by Robert Johnson. This song has been covered by more artists than I care to mention. Cream played a fast version of the song, but most other people have played it as a fairly slow blues, as is done here. Wille again throws in some awesome lap steel! Wille And The Bandit(s) are one high calibre support act. They play their own headline tour in March 2025 with their full line-up. They’re well worth catching live.
Willie And The Bandits:
Wille Edwards – vocals, guitar, lap steel
Harry Mackaill – rhythm guitar, acoustic bass guitar, backing vocals
Wille And The Bandit(s) setlist:
‘Love Me When The Fire’s Out’ (unreleased)
‘Got To Do Better’ (unreleased)
‘When The World Stood Still’ (When The World Stood Still 2022)
‘Four Million Days’ (Paths 2019)
‘Keep It On The Down-Low’ (Paths 2019)
‘Crossroad Blues’ (Robert Johnson cover)
The bar closes five minutes before the main act’s showtime at Beth Hart’s request, which is one way to ensure a sober audience I suppose. Beth’s band, consisting of Jon Nichols on guitar, Tom Lilly on bass, and Bill Ransom on drums, take the stage a few minutes after the 9pm stage time, and cut straight into the opening song ‘I Believe’. Beth can be heard singing, but there’s no sign of her. Suddenly there’s cheering from behind me. Beth, singing, stands up from a seat in the rear stalls and walks down the aisle towards the stage. Of course she does. This is a brilliant piece of showmanship, and really makes Beth and the audience seem as one as she shakes people’s hands as she passes. This would be a great start to any show.
‘Suga N My Bowl’ from the current album ‘You Still Got Me’ sounds spectacularly rude, or is that just my mind? She sits at the edge of the stage to sing this. She’s got a hell of a voice, like a female Robert Plant. Like the great man, she has an incredible range too, both in terms of the notes that she can hit, and in terms of her vocal dynamics.
‘Machine Gun Vibrato’ is a detour from the setlist onstage that photographer Cris Watkins had helpfully photographed for me. Indeed, for this point on that setlist is well and truly abandoned. Beth and the band play some of the same songs, but not necessarily in the same order (with apologies to the late Eric Morecambe!). ‘Machine gun vibrato’ was apparently her producer’s description of Beth’s vibrato technique, and a very accurate description it is too! Her vibrato technique is awesome. Beth is seated behind the baby grand onstage, where she spends much of the rest of the set. There’s a reason for this: she’s a totally brilliant pianist! Mind you, she has been playing since she was four years old. Jon Nichols meanwhile is playing an electric blue Gibson SG. Four songs in this is his third guitar of the evening, following the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul. I must confess that I’m starting to become a little jealous of his guitar armoury!
‘Never Underestimate A Gal’ is one of the more unusual songs from ‘You Still Got Me’. Without wishing to give too much away, it’s about “a young girl who is messed around by an older gentleman”. Then she grows up, seduces him and kills him. It sounds like a 1930s Weimar Republic cabaret song, complete with a whistling solo from Beth. Let it not be said that she is anyway stuck in one genre.
For ‘Spirit Of God’ Jon Nichols is wielding a Fender Telecaster, to great effect it has to be said. The song is about Beth visiting a Baptist church when she was six years old, and the joyful form of worship that she encountered there. Beth is definitely something of a raconteur. Her song introductions can sometimes be a bit lengthy, but they’re both informative and interesting. She talks a bit about Billie Holiday, who the following song, ‘Baddest Blues’, is all about. See Beth Hart play live and learn!
Beth’s material touches on war fairly frequently. ‘Picture In A Frame’ is about a man going to war, and his woman not knowing whether he will return. Jon Nichols is now playing a Les Paul Junior, from which he coaxes an almost keyboard-like vamping sound. ‘Take It Easy On Me’ features Beth solo on piano, without the band. She talks about the menopause, and how hard it is on her husband, prior to playing the title track of her current album ‘You Still Got Me’. At the end of the song her husband, who is also her road manager, comes onstage to give her a hug. With some artists this would seem somewhat cheesy. Here it seems genuine and heartfelt, and is a nice touch of normality.
Tom Lilly returns to play upright double bass on ‘War In My Mind’. Beth makes some weird spooky vocal noises with the aid of about a ton of reverb. The rest of the band return to play acoustically on ‘Sugar Shack’. Beth emerges from behind the piano for this. Drummer Bill Ransom plays on a small kit set up at the front of the stage. It doesn’t appear to be miked up, but emits plenty of sound anyway. Beth looks like she’s got a lollipop in her mouth while Bill plays an acoustic percussion solo, which is pretty awesome incidentally. ‘Wanna Be Big Bad Johnny Cash’ sounds exactly like a Johnny Cash song. Beth is clearly enjoying it and is back in the audience again! However, as this is a seated audience she isn’t taking her life in her hands to the degree that she might be with a standing crowd.
Beth is back behind the piano for ‘Sister Heroine’, which she wrote for her sister Sharon. Sharon passed away from complications due to AIDS when Beth was twenty-two. Naturally this affected Beth a great deal. The song is extremely moving and powerful, and features an awesome solo from Jon Nichols on the Les Paul. The main set ends with ‘Savior With A Razor’ from the current album, before the band leave the stage, and then bounce back on again almost immediately. They’re obviously aware of the curfew, which Beth tells us “is very strict”.
Tom Lilly this time is behind the piano, and also has a small synth, which I must confess that I hadn’t noticed before. They break into a cover of Led Zeppelin’s ‘No Quarter’. To even contemplate attempting this song requires a shedload of confidence and musical skill. Luckily Beth and her band have both in spades, so this doesn’t present them with a challenge. Besides, Beth recorded a Led Zeppelin tribute album two years ago, so she is more than familiar with the material. ‘No Quarter’ leads into ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ which was originally written by Anne Bredon, and then added to by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant for Led Zeppelin’s first album. Beth and the band more than do justice to these songs. They’re excellent versions!
This has been an epic concert, lasting for two hours give or take a few minutes. I get the feeling that were it not for the curfew they would have happily played for longer. The quality of the performance has been fantastic too. Beth and the band have a raw quality onstage which is completely missing from her records. They don’t do justice to Beth or her material. If only she had a producer who could capture that live quality on record. Still, there are some legendary performers who have never managed to capture their live energy on record. The Who are a prime example, so Beth shouldn’t feel too bad. The fact that she and her band can deliver that intensity live is more than enough. They should all be very proud of themselves. This has been an outstanding gig!
Beth Hart:
Beth Hart – vocals and piano
John Nichols – guitar and backing vocals
Tom Lilly – bass, piano and synthesizer
Bill Ransom – drums
Beth Hart setlist:
‘I Believe’ (unreleased)
‘Sinners / Broken & Ugly’ (from 2003 ‘Leave The Light On’ album)
‘Suga N My Bowl’ (from 2024 ‘You Still Got Me’ album)
‘Machine Gun Vibrato’ (from 2024 ‘You Still Got Me’ album)
‘Never Underestimate A Gal’ (from 2024 ‘You Still Got Me’ album)
‘Spirit Of God’ (from 2012 ‘Bang Bang Boom Boom’ album)
‘Baddest Blues’ (from 2012 ‘Bang Bang Boom Boom’ album)
‘Picture In A Frame’ (from 2016 ‘Fire On The Floor’ album)
‘Take It Easy On Me’ (from 2010 ‘My California’ album)
‘You Still Got Me’ (from 2024 ‘You Still Got Me’ album)
‘War In My Mind’ (from 2019 ‘War In My Mind’ album)
‘Sugar Shack’ (from 2019 ‘War In My Mind’ album)
‘Baby Shot Me Down’ (from 2016 ‘Fire On The Floor’ album)
‘Wanna Be Big Bad Johnny Cash’ (from 2024 ‘You Still Got Me’ album)
‘Sister Heroine’ (from 2010 ‘My California’ album)
‘Savior With A Razor’ (from 2024 ‘You Still Got Me’ album)
(encore)
‘No Quarter’ / ‘Babe I’m Gonna Leave You’ (from 2022 ‘Tribute To Led Zeppelin’ album)
