Bumping into Katy Hurt a few hours before her spot on the Big Entrance Stage, it was easy to tell that this was someone dying to get out and play in front of an audience. We'd seen her play this very stage a couple of years before and that time out things were a little out of kilter between the volume of the band and that of the best instrument on the stage - Katy's voice - It was still a great show but was like using a Formula 1 car to go and get your shopping. No such problems this year with band and singer working in perfect harmony. the band afforded the opportunity to make some noise where required but never at the expense of Katy's singing.
With a cold wind blowing across the Big Entrance Stage, Katy bare armed, dived straight into a couple of country rock numbers possibly both to feature on her forthcoming album, both "Believer" and "Daydreaming", sounded incredibly strong and did somewhat whet the appetite for might be to come.
Last years excellent single "Sounds Good In A Bar" followed and looking along the lines of fans, many were mouthing the lyrics along with Katy, in fact they even performed the final chorus solo. There is one song in Katy's repertoire we've been waiting some years to surface, and as the Petty ish intro gave way to some Fleetwood Mac sounds, we were finally reacquainted with "Before The Ice Melts", lyrically and musically it is fantastic and for an unreleased song it drew a huge round of applause and gave Katy a chance to hit some real high notes - possibly one our favourite moments from the whole weekend, it really is that good.
For "What Have You Got To Lose?", Katy shed her guitar and went to holding the microphone in her hands for this slow blues country number. Ever the excellent performer, she dropped to her knees exactly as the lyrics said "fall on your knees" and she really worked the stage, emphasising the lyrics with hand gestures as she sung. Gradually building in volume and tempo this was another great vocal performance.
The balance between band and singer that we alluded to at the start of the review was typified by "Revved Up", this time round it managed to keep its ZZ Top style Texan blues qualities yet it was clearly Katy still leading the way/
Katy has now amassed a batch of really high quality material and that was with leaving out a few gems. Things closed inevitably with one of her classics, "Unfinished Business", with the audience participation being the cherry on the cake for what proved to be an exemplary set.
Comments