Tom Odell at Varsity Theater
Tom Odell Setlist
Lucie Silvas Setlist
Tour Dates
07/05/2019 El Rey Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
08/05/2019 August Hall, San Francisco, CA 10/05/2019 Wonder Ballroom, Portland, OR 11/05/2019 Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, BC 12/05/2019 Neptune Theatre, Seattle, WA 24-26/05/2019 Porthilly Spirit Festival Cornwall, UK 01/06/2019 Kelvingrove Bandstand, Glasgow, UK 08/06/2019 Barrowland Ballroom, Glasgow, UK 21/06/2019 Porta Nigra - Vorplatz, Trier, Germany 21/06/2019 – 23/06/2019 Goldcoast Oceanfest, Croyde, UK 06/07/2019 St. Peter at Sunset 2019 Kestenholz, Switzerland 07/07/2019 Tollwood Sommerfestival , Munich, Germany 09-14/07/2019 Atlas Weekend 2019, Kiev, Ukraine 13/07/2019 Cardiff Castle, Cardiff, UK 01-03/08/2019 Tartan Heart Festival, Inverness, UK 01-04/08/2019 Wilderness Festival , Charlbury, UK 17/08/2019 Zeltfestival Ruhr, Bochum, Germany 23/08/2019 Custom House Square, Belfast, UK Read More
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For a few hours, 4th Street in front of the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis, was figuratively and musically re-named Jubilee Road, with a dash of even Beethoven featured on the encore-
The occasion was the anticipated return of UK singer/pianist Tom Odell, in support of last fall’s Jubilee Road (Columbia Records), his third full-length that went Top Five in his native England as well as Scotland.
Another UK (Nashville-based for the last decade) singer/songwriter/pianist, Lucie Silvas opened the evening, with a heartfelt set of songs, mostly culled from her forth and latest full-length, last year’s E.G.O. (on Furthest Point/Thirty Tigers), the title of which, refers directly to everybody gets off, though it is also about the absurdity of vanity, as well.
Married to one of the alt-country duo Brothers Osborne, Silvas’ own music defies conventional description- take part lush pop, some Nashvillian country, and a splash of 60’s style Dusty Springfield/Burt Bacharach, and you have her fresh take on things.
Silvas, though new to most, was actually signed by EMI in 2000, and admitted the audience was probably unfamiliar with her music, but was grateful for the chance to introduce herself, playing her songs solo for this outing, as opposed to with a full band. Lead single from the new record, ‘Kite’ soared with Silvas crooning ”You better hold those strings ‘cause she’s gonna fly away”. She was excited to say that ‘Black Jeans’ (Co-written by JD McPherson) is getting increased recent radio airplay, and ended things nicely with the gospel-tinged uplift of ‘Everything Looks Beautiful’.
With a simple piano and three-piece backing band, Tom Odell took to the stage with tousled blonde hair dressed in a dark jacket for his ninety-minute set, beginning it with 2016’s ‘Sparrow’. A Brit Awards Critics Choice winner, the Elton John-influenced Odell remains oddly still a bit of a musical secret on these shores, while the similar sounding Keane, Chris Martin, and others have gone on to wider audiences, though things may change with Odell’s continued quality output and his consistent touring.
Obviously proud of his crack longtime band (Max Goff-bass; Max Clilverd- guitar; Andy Burrows- drums), each member got an impressive mini-solo early, as things segued into premier single, ‘Can’t Pretend’ and a heartfelt ‘Heal’, from the same debut album. Odell then jumped ahead on the setlist, to the new ‘Queen of Diamonds’, prefaced by an origin story of the song’s rich inspiration from two similar ideas.
Moving to guitar for the new and yet-to-be released love song ‘Tears that Never Dry’, Odell admitted he was limited in his guitar playing, but wrote the song on the instrument, so gave it a worthy go, though he seemed unsatisfied with the performance as it ended. Things picked back up returning to the piano, skipping ‘Sirens’ to forge ahead with the new Tumbleweed Connection Elton-era sounding ‘Don’t Belong in Hollywood’.
Women swooned with the chorus of 2013’s ‘Grow Old with Me’ as momentum slowly rose, morphing into full-on screaming as Odell left the piano to get close into the audience for ‘Hold Me’, before taking a breath to bring Lucie Silvas back out for a sweet don’t-know-what-you-got-'til-its-gone duet on ‘Half as Good as You’ (recorded on the new album with Alice Merton), admitting in hindsight “If I ever find anyone half as good as you, I think maybe that would do” to strongly end the main set.
For the encore, the street scene of Jubilee Road was lyrically painted with the stomping ‘Son of an Only Child’ and Odell admitting “I’m sick of singing ‘bout my broken heart, I’m a rocket man… and I’m a juvenile”, seguing into another round of rousing mini-solos by each band member. Culminating in Odell’s own mini instrumental, he chose a quiet and contemplative version of Beethoven’s ‘Fur Elise’ (aka Bagatelle No. 25 in A minor- WoO 59, Bia 515) before things shot back up to finish the song with an exclamation.
2016’s yearning ‘Concrete’ ended with a musical flash and bang, and Odell, saying he hoped to return to play in the area for many years to come, finished the evening with his biggest hit, the chart-topping ‘Another Love’, from his debut EP in 2012, still poignant and powerful, almost a decade later.
For anyone that enjoys piano-driven heartbreaking Brit pop, Tom Odell is a great and vital addition to that list, learning from those that came before him, while uniquely carving out his own musical path, and on this tour showing us a colorful street teaming with life and love stories called Jubilee Road.
(click on any photo below to enlarge and see full image)
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Lucie Silvas |
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Tom Odell at Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (01 May 2019) |
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