Unlike many of the country artists gracing UK shores of late, Lindi Ortega has a storied history touring in Britain and Europe. Part of the reason for this is her Americana leanings, and Americana has long received loyal grassroots success in this country, but this should take nothing away from the popularity she has managed to cultivate among British patrons. Now in the midst of her first tour of the nation in two years, in support of her latest album ‘Faded Gloryville’, Lindi once again returned to Liverpool to prove her live chops and then some.
Featuring an enthusiastic crowd of largely middle-aged men and women, most of whom didn’t turn up until after support act Jordan Klassen had left the stage, there was much enthusiasm and excitement for the pint-sized, Canadian-born songstress. Dressed in her trademark black with funeral headpiece and red cowboy boots, Lindi stomped out onto the small stage with a smile, beginning her loud and feisty set with ‘Run Down Neighborhood’, a track from her new album. Much of her 75 minutes on stage was devoted to the latest record, including the likes of ‘Half Moon’, the title track ‘Faded Gloryville’, ‘Run Amuck’, ‘I Ain’t The Girl’, ‘When You Ain’t Home’, ‘Ashes’, ‘Tell It Like It Is’ and The Bee Gees cover ‘To Love Somebody’ (garnering one of the biggest audience reactions of the night). She did play songs from each of her other Last Gang albums, but they were limited or one or two of her favourites from each of the three.
Perhaps due to the fact that Lindi talked little in between songs, the set was fast-paced and hardly felt like over an hour had sped on by. She did pause from time to time to address the crowd, such as when she explained the context behind the song ‘Faded Gloryville’ (a place of depression and hopelessness people often visit briefly when faced with life’s trials), or when she complimented the cowboy shirt and vest of the man in the front row (“He’s a cool dude”). She also made sure to make fun of her own dance moves, and invited the audience to tweet her with names for a new one she had begun using, smiling as she did so.
Lindi has a habit of being extremely consistent, both in her studio efforts and live, and I have to say this was the case here. It did seem like it took her a couple of songs to get truly settled, and part of that for me was due to the different arrangements and rhythms she used for some of the initial performances. The first handful of songs utilised a very heavily groove-based approach that wasn’t present for the studio versions, and it threw me off – I’m not sure whether it was just my preference, but something about these renditions didn’t feel right. Still, after that it was down to business, and highlights included the likes of ‘Run Amuck’ (which seemed to revitalise the crowd and Lindi herself) in addition to ‘Hard As This’ (the first half of which was played acoustically, an approach I actually preferred).
The only thing which really seemed out of place about the set was down to the venue itself. I’m not sure if I was standing too close to the speaker – although it was a relatively small venue and this shouldn’t have been an issue – but often the mix sounded quite off. The bass was turned up incredibly loud, to the point it became fuzzy, and a few times the instruments overpowered Lindi’s vocals, something which isn’t easy to do. ‘Ashes’ is one of my favourite songs of hers, and I found it almost impossible to pick out its melodic gems due to the mixing problems.
Still, Lindi gave her all, and it could have been that those standing in a different area of the venue got much better sound. The night flew by, ending the three-song encore in the most amazing version of Johnny Cash’s ‘Ring of Fire’ I have ever heard – bar the original, of course. Lindi is a self-confessed Cash fan, and this hard rock reimagining of the classic country tune was truly something to behold.
Despite some issues beyond her control, the show was great, and I very much look forward to seeing Lindi again. There’s still time to buy tickets to her other shows on this tour, and I definitely recommend you do that.
Originally posted here.
