A full blown rock concert was what I was treated to last night at Village Underground, London and My Brightest Diamond simply rocked the brick cove to the ground with an electric set list and plenty of fun along the way.
The set list was heavily based on the recent album This Is My Hand but it plays magnificently. The drummer she has on tour worked wonders of “Pressure” and the bassist shone on various songs too. Shara herself would frequently swap from keyboards and samplers to the guitar between tracks. It was definitely a plugged concert with plenty of moments to rock out. Some of the highlights on that front included a jamming finale to “Resonance” a song I’d not heard before called “A Bronze Head” which had a guitar solo in and an amazing version of “Freak Out”. Elsewhere the percussion really kicked in especially for “Inside A Boy” and “Apples”, which saw Shara start dancing around with her mbira for an extended version and she seemed intent on getting us all dancing and happy. In fact it was her cover of “Fever” that saw her take to the crowd itself and she began schmoozing the audience as she sang at them and seductively moving around the crowd. It was something that really got the crowd going and the cover itself was perfect – she has an amazing voice for that track.
My Brightest Diamond was on stage for about 80 minutes so the concert wasn’t epically long but it was perfectly formed. A real foot stomper and not much in the way of slow tracks, I was left elated, overjoyed and rocking to the core – highly recommended. Oh – and that voice is pitch perfect live too!