LIVE REVIEW: SIMEON HAMMOND DALLAS - THE LOWER THIRD - LONDON

The Lower Third is a strange old venue, it exudes a sort of shabby chic, the bar area is most definitely glitzy, high tech and finished, the rest of the surroundings and indeed the convoluted route to it, can leave you wondering if it is being gentrified up or about to be knocked down. Tonight it is filled in anticipation of the final leg of of Simeon Hammond Dallas's current tour promoting her new, rather wonderful EP - "Seventeen". For this London show her backing band have an additional guitarist making his debut, not that you'd have known, as they were a very tight unit who were both sympathetic to Simeon's music and had looks of joy on their faces as they played their part.

Four clicks of the drumstick would signal that it was time to begin, the band had assembled on stage and were building up a sense of excitement with their dramatic percussion led intro. Suddenly the lady of the hour, Simeon Hammond Dallas, sporting a sparkly pair of blue shoes and leopard print shorts, would take to the stage and face the immediate ignominy of having to plug her own guitar cable into the amp as well as her guitar. This of course won't happen when she's famous and has her own guitar tech, but for now as the band circled round the intro once more Simeon would soon have things up and running.

Opening with "Fallen", one of the tracks from the new EP, It would start with just Simeon and her acoustic guitar, the band gradually building up around her, leading into the sublime chorus, which would see Simeon wrap her vocals around its sweet melodies. This was slick adult pop music at its absolute best. All too soon with a swish of her arm the song would suddenly draw to an end.

The band would immediately kick off into a funky intro, into "Come My Way" with the organ particularly prominent. It was rock, funk and soul simultaneously and Simeon fronted it with a certain style and a big smile - exclaiming "You came!" on its completion, to a gloriously cosmopolitan audience who were in the mood to enjoy themselves.

Specially for keyboard player Gabe, came "Out To You", Simeon would play the prominent intricate guitar intro, before the band would join later. The voice that had rocked us a few moments earlier was now almost a sweet folk singer.

Some of Simeon's intro's to songs seem to go on longer than the actual song but that can be forgiven when it is for a song like "August". It's a mixture of clever wordplay, matched to precise phrasing and sung like an angel. Simeon paints a picture of two people at times almost verbally sparring through the medium of the English language. Simeon's acoustic guitar would be the main instrument, with the band neatly adding slight musical flourishes, a dash of percussion here, some keyboard notes there, to great effect.

It was only emerging from the first chorus that the full band sound kicked in and Simeon had to raise the volume of her vocal, "August Is over" each time was subjected to a marvellously extended note.

The introduction to "Wild Woman" was fascinating, record label machinations were laid bare but the anecdote finished with Simeon proudly reclaiming her full name which is "Simeon Hammond Dallas". Once more there was a fusion of sounds, the band were rocking, Simeon was firing off the lines at a sassy pace one minute, then rocking the next. then almost speaking them, It made for a heady entertaining cocktail.

A slight error in judgement came with distributing bubble making equipment just before launching into one of her more serious songs, "Betting On You". Gradually the giddy excitement died down and allowed Simeon to deliver a stunning version, aided by a percussion masterclass of brushes and cymbals which added great presence.

It was back to the EP for the title track "Seventeen", where the keyboard, with just a few well placed notes, added another layer. It came with some brutally honest confessions and was one of the best performances of the night. Immediately lifting the mood, came the joy of "100 Lovers" with the organ vibrantly high in the mix. and Simeon seemingly finding different ways to say "and none of them stay".

Changing styles once more, it was time for the blues, for "The Blues Is A Game", with Simeon relishing playing the electric guitar and pulling out an authentic blues delivery, before turning things into an audience singalong with "You ain't got the Blues, you're just a sad sad man" being sung back by the whole audience.

What would then follow was something not seen at the average Americana show, a bit of crowd surfing! It seemed to evoke a look of both fear and elation on Simeon's face as she travelled the room aloft!!!

A shuffling drum intro would then take us back to the EP for "Four In The Morning" with a luscious rich organ sound combining with the Sixties guitar sound - another stand out track on the night. The final song of the set would see Simeon don her electric guitar once more.

The opening bars of "Make It Romantic" would see an unsolicited bit of audience participation, large swathes of those watching just bursting into song. Simeon would move to a rootsy super smooth soulful voice which naturally she did with some aplomb and an effortless ease as well as adding in her own gifted guitar solo.

The encore would see a blistering "Bad Liar", delivered with venom. The band were in a crisp punchy mood and it made for an electric soundscape. There could be but one way to send us on our way into the London night and that was with "Do I Die".

It could not hope to match the recorded version which is as perfect as things get, however Simeon and the band would give it a go, maybe swapping the crisp clinical precision of the recorded version for a slightly bassier version, it would elicit more audience singing with even Simeon being impressed at her own fans knowing the second verse. It was the icing on the cake of a pretty much perfect night.