Beth Orton @ U Street Music Hall, Washington DC - June 11 2016.
Completing the London show tonight is Beth Orton, a folktronica sort of artist that has done extremely well in Europe and commands a reasonably strong presence here in the US as well. Although not a huge crowd tonight, it is packed up front with some serious fans.
Orton has two musicians that play a combination of drums, bass, and keyboards. She starts on electronic sounds and the first few songs are decent, but stray more to a mysterious pop rock sound. Her vocals are always compelling, so it is effective, but not drawing me in as much as her recent excellent album.
Then she strapped on an acoustic guitar and the set became more magical. The folk element was there and the band assisted in going a bit folktronica here, a bit psychedelic there, or offering a steady folk rock foundation for Orton's dynamic lyrics and voice.
She even played solo as well, so there was a lot of variety in this set. I can't complain about that, even if I have my favorite songs and styles. It was nice to finally catch a set from this talented artist.
First published @ dcrocklive.blogspot.com.
Photo Credits:
(1)-(2) Beth Orton (by Wikipedia).