You’d be hard put to find a more energetic performer than Brett Eldredge. He is the kind of artist whose energy level just seems to build and build throughout the set, soaking in the energy from the crowd. His performance on Friday night at Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London was no exception. Here we review his set and our favourite moments.
Brett Eldredge proved any UK doubters wrong last year, with his flawless main stage performance at C2C in 2019. Since then, we haven’t heard much from Eldredge, as he has retreated, completing the ‘flip phone challenge’ and writing his new music. This Friday was the last night of his European tour and he seemed to leave any energy he had left on the table.
It’s quite something when an artist can begin their performance with a wholly new song. Brett burst onto the stage at Shepherd’s Bush with his unreleased track ‘Good Day.’ Still, the audience was buoyed up by the track and the sheer fact that it was clear Brett was loving every moment of being on that stage. The track is positive, without being corny – one to definitely keep your ears out for as it seems bound to be a single in the forthcoming months. Next up was a string of the huge hits that the audience had been waiting for, as Brett seamlessly transitioned into ‘Something I’m Good At,’ ’Don’t Ya’ and ‘Love Someone’ as the audience bellowed the words back in response. Brett just seemed to gain energy as he navigated through the set, imbibing the energy from the crowd and transmitting it back with a huge grin on his face.
Pulling it back a notch, he then referenced the ‘powerful experience’ of the last year as he had retreated, focussing on his writing. His new track ‘Crowd My Mind’ was a huge moment, bringing out the range and depth of Brett’s vocals. It made you realise that Eldredge has not given the true recognition he deserves, his songwriting is raw and real and those vocals are simply flawless and utterly unique. This track felt reminiscent of the compelling narratives of ‘Raymond’ or ‘No Stopping You’ – if this is an indication of what his new material is going to be like, it could utterly dominate 2020.
Not one to bring the mood down on a Friday night, Eldredge smoothly progressed into ‘Drunk On Your Love’ and ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love,’ moving around the stage with ease and dominating the space and eliciting a raucous response from the audience.
He is a born, engaging and charismatic performer, but his syrupy smooth vocals should be given due credit. Nowhere was this more pronounced than in the stripped back acoustic part of the set, where he brought it back to the song that started it all – ‘Raymond.’ The tenderness with which Brett Eldredge deals with this track is profound, pouring his heart and his honeyed vocals into the song and mesmerising his fans. Surprisingly, he followed this up with one of his bigger tracks ‘The Long Way’ – it was a shrewd choice, as this is the kind of song that doesn’t need huge production behind it but speaks for itself in a quieter setting.
Yet more surprising though, was the fact that Brett followed this up with a cover of Billie Eilish’s ‘When The Party’s Over.’ It took some minutes to even realise that this was a cover, being so starkly different from the original. Eldredge may have made me an Eilish convert just from that performance – another shrewd cover choice came later, mashing up ‘The Reason’ with ‘My Girl.’
His almost unfathomably energetic performance of ‘Lose My Mind’ – and later track ‘Fire’ – made you seriously question how he is not a superstar yet. He has the ability to capture an audience and hold them in the palm of his hand as much in these almost frenetic track as he does in slower follow-up track (and final new track of the night ‘Magnolia’), a song that really captured the depth of his lyricism, proof that he is foremost a songwriter and later become an artist. Nowhere was this captured more astutely than in the final track of his main set ‘Wanna Be That Song.’ As if he needed proof that he was indeed ‘that song,’ the audience probably destroyed a few vocal chords in their screaming desire for him to come back for an encore.
Returning to the stage, Eldredge ended the set with a deeper cut ‘One Mississippi,’ that created an immensely powerful moment, before – arguably – his biggest hit ‘Beat of the Music.’ For this final night of his European tour, Eldredge really gave everything he had to his audience and they responded with palpable gratitude. He is an artist that really should not be underestimated, and the set was a good reminder of just how astounding he is as a performer, songwriter and true artist. If the new material in this set was anything to go by, we’re waiting with baited breath for the new record, it’s shaping up to be something really special.
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Set List:
1. Good Day (Unreleased), 2. Something I’m Good At, 3. Don’t Ya, 4. Love Someone, 5. Crowd My Mind (Unreleased), 6. Drunk On Your Love, 7. Crazy Little Thing Called Love, 7. Raymond, 8 The Long Way, 9. When The Party’s Over (Billie Eilish cover), 10. Lose My Mind 11. Magnolia (Unreleased), 12. The Reason / My Girl, 13. Mean To Me, 14. Fire, 15. Wanna Be That Song / Encore: 16. One Mississippi, 17. Beat of the Music
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