Beth Orton in Minneapolis

written by: Cory Q

My first exposure to Orton was not through her solo efforts but through two electronic acts. Orton has done vocals for The Chemical Brothers on a couple albums ("The State We're In" from Come With Us and "Where Do I Begin" from Dig Your Own Hole) as well as working with William Orbit. It was her pairing with Orbit that actually led me to purchase her second album Trailer Park. She Orbit does a tune called "She Cries Your Name" on the album Hinterland. A great album and this tune is a particular stand out. When I found out Orton had done the same tune on her album I was compelled to find out the other side of the sonic story. Turns out both songs are very good and very different.

If you are unfamiliar with Orton's sound, it can be described, I think, as singer/songwriter for the new genre bending era. Orton's latest album, Comfort of Strangers, is certainly more straight ahead un influenced acoustic rock than some of her previous work, but to say she is a singer/songwriter in the AM radio sense of the word is to miss the nuance in her work. She reminds me a bit of a mellow Marianne Faithfull who has hung out with electronic rockers.

On to the show: Mrs Q, Annie, and I met up at Annie's place and headed down to First Ave. I am glad to say that venue did not suffer from their brief but startling closure awhile back. Annie is a former co-worker of mine. She has a degree in Art History which means she was way to smart and cool to be working the retail job she was when I attempted to be her manager. We have since both left that craphole job but remained friends and it was under Annie's impetus that we got tickets for this gig. We arrived early enough to take up a good spot on the floor (just to the right of center stage) and chat for a bit.

The opening was a set of blokes called Clayhill. I would describe their sound as The Verve (minus drums) meets Lloyd Cole. There were three of them on stage: a vocalist, a guitarist (acoustic) and a bassist. When I say bass, I mean double bass. You know, the stand up kind you would find in an orchestra. That gave me hope that perhaps Orton would use this instrument to play "Galaxy of Emptiness" but it was not to be. Anyway, I don't really know anything about this group other than I like their sound and their first song had a monkey reference in it. You can check out their band web site if you like.

After Clayhill was done, we waited for a bit, the place filled up a little more, we got to hear "The Magic Number" by De La Soul, and Beth Orton took the stage. She is tall and angular. She had her hair in her face, wearing a red shirt and jeans. Here is what (mostly) she played.

Set list:
Rectify
Heartland Truckstop
?
Heart of Soul
Worms
Daybreaker
Comfort of Strangers
Sugar Boy
Central Reservation
Conceived
Shadow of a Doubt *
Shopping Trolley
?
Encore:
Dolphins #
Absinthe A Place Aside ^
2nd Encore (which was just Orton and a guitar):
Sweetest Decline
She Cries Your Name

* Orton wanted to know if perhaps Prince was in the audience, wearing a wig, so he could catch the show.
# Orton straps on a harmonic and makes a joke about having bad British teeth.
^ Annie finally tells the drunk girl and loud guy hitting on her to either shut up or move so we can enjoy the show. They moved. Annie is bad ass.

I didn't know all of the songs. I wrote the set list down in my moleskine but it was dark, I was standing, and I just can't read what the hell I wrote in a couple spots. So, that is the best set list I can produce. Sorry.

It was a solid show. The songs moved quickly into each other in a coherent fashion. I wasn't sure what to expect from the crowd or the sound of the show. There was more rocking than I expected. I was thinking it might just be a solo acoustic show. The crowd was diverse as well in age. The only down side to the show, besides the woman in front of me who kept steping back right into me and the drunk folks Annie schooled, was the volumatic fluctuations in Orton's voice. On the album that can be mastered out but live it became sharper, but certainly tolerable.

So, if Orton is coming to your town and you are predisposed to her sound, I recommend catching the show.

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