Review: George Ezra – The Bodega – 27 February 2014

The Bodega has recently played host to many upcoming bands and artists tipped for 2014. GEORGE EZRA is no exception to that. It’s hard to believe that this current tour is his first ever headline tour, having had so much success already. With a lot of support from BBC Radio 1 and being placed on the BBC Sound of 2014 list, George was propelled into arms of a much wider audience, selling out his entire tour.

As you can imagine for such a young up and coming song writer, The Bodega buzzed with excitement.  SAM FENDER takes to the stage, unnoticed by many at first. That quickly changed as he began to play, his strong voice and confident stage presence poured out into the audience. With a voice that could be compared to Jeff Buckley, and one you would possibly expect from a rather older man than the slight nineteen year old Geordie on stage. That being no bad thing as his soulful voice carried well throughout the set, with his song writing showing some great maturity. That being said, some songs were a little lackluster in places, leaving attentions dwindling by the end of the songs. He made up for this however with his bubbly personality and stage banter. Leaving the audience in high spirits, Sam proved to be a good opening act, showing great promise.

George walks onto the stage to be greeted by a very excited screaming and cheering crowd. He quickly introduces himself before opening with Blame It On Me, an older song not on his EP (But just as good as anything he’s more recently written). Blame It On Me wonderfully showcased his voice, which not unlike Sam Fender, to be mature beyond his years. His warm, deep voice, gravelly at times, is akin to Dylan and Johnny Cash with a blues legend or two thrown in there. His vocals on Did You Hear The Rain are a real punch in the gut, with the vocal only intro really showing off his vocal talents.

Vocals are not the only thing George has going for him though, he proves to be a very promising songwriter. He’s definitely not a one trick pony either, it’s refreshing to see a young songwriter that doesn’t only sing about partying and teenage crushes in the same old fashion. Budapest, a crowd favourite was introduced by a tale of travelling around Europe and not reaching Budapest, these little anecdotes were dotted about the set and provided some small breaks in the show.

Benjamin Twine is a very lighthearted and honest song about his best friend, which had the whole crowd singing along. Singing about his best friend’s sister, “I made a promise to myself once, that I would wake up by her side, my best friend said that would be the day I died” instigated some laughing in the crowd, showing that George is not afraid to be a little playful in his song writing. It provided a great contrast to Angry Hill a beautifully melancholy ballad. It’s hard to pin him down in to a specific genre or style, but I don’t need to. He has great diversity through his songs whilst still maintaining ‘his’ sound. He could be described as folk, blues and more recently pop, with his latest single Cassy O’ being a catchy pop song. The upbeat song was met by the entire crowd singing along enthusiastically, again a great contrast to the relative silence and intimate atmosphere during Angry Hill.

Even though his EP was recorded with a full band, George played solo with just two guitars. Keeping the energy up in such a situation is no mean feat but he really did pull it off. It also shows that George has some really solid songs that are good enough to make for a great show without all the extra instrumentation. Tip offs for new artists can often be hit and miss, but if George is anything to go by, the BBC Sound of 2014  list has done very well this year. An artist that can dip his toes into different genres and bind them all together well, is hard to come by these days, but George keeps on doing it. The new songs he played show that his success so far is no fluke. His album which is due to be released this year is definitely one to watch out for. I have no doubt that George Ezra is here to stay.

Review by Whitney Knowles

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