Joanna Newsom

Touring for the first time in years, the beloved indie-songwriter was in fine form, deftly leaping between the harp (her main instrument) and piano while her band also shuffled between a dizzying array of banjo, guitar, viola, drums, keyboards and many more. The set mostly focused on latest album ‘Divers’ but also featured a generous amount of back catalogue mining. The rollicking, wildly complex ‘Have One On Me’ and the spritely, rousing encore closer ‘Peach, Plum, Pear’ were the fan-favourite highlights of the evening and the atmosphere was warm and welcoming all around, drawing several ovations. Newsom is a staggeringly talented musician and performer, but the one flaw was perhaps a sense of separation between the instruments. Although individually beautiful, the quiet parts occasionally failed to coalesce into an immersive gig-type soundworld that one could could get truly lost in.

Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, 1 November 2015

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