#WTFISAJACKGARRATT
I first witnessed Jack Garratt at the Live at Leeds city festival a couple of years ago, granted I was only there so I could get a good spot for Rae Morris and Frank Turner who were playing immediately after, but the 50 or so people at that show left the city that night with a new favourite artist, and subsequent months were spent searching for songs on the internet and grabbing tickets for shows when I could to see it all again. One track completely blew me away that night, I didn’t know its name, but it included a surprise guitar solo at the end that left you open mouthed thinking – ‘did he really just do that?’
Now a few EPs later, and having witnessed Jack Garratt play on the Park Stage to a big crowd at Glastonbury this year, you can see that his star is definitely on the rise and he’s now packed and sold out Shepherds Bush Empire on a cold Wednesday night in London.
This venue is special to Jack as it’s a kind of homecoming, having lived just down the road and the first concert that he attended was at the same venue. He’s surrounded by family friends and fans old and new. We’ve just witnessed 2 stunning support acts in Alex Vargas and the American beauty that is Verite who Jack has toured with in the US recently.
Jack Garratt came on stage to a massive cheer which takes him aback completely and sets the scene for what will probably be the most emotional show he has played to date. His stage set up is keyboards, guitar and a surround of Go Pro cameras used to occasionally project on to the two background screens, a large grey paisley lamp is above his head.
First track is played almost in total darkness and ‘Water’ which has a beautiful slow build quickly flowed into ‘Chemical’ which introduces the key multilayers of Garratt’s talent. He can play several styles, crooning high piano vocal, mixing with a quick R&B clap beat and then a strong burst of a bassline that makes your entire body vibrate – and with ‘Chemical’ you get all this in one song, and to watch him mixing the beats live using the drumpad, shifting across to the keys for piano and back whilst remaining in total control of the song is mesmerising to watch.
Track after track played with the same enthusiasm despite his recent illness (he had to cancel a show in Birmingham recently) he bounces around the 10ftx10ft space he’s given himself like a man possessed, picking up a fender guitar, now given to him by the company (and named ‘Margaret’) he proceeds to throw in the odd guitar solo that Clapton, Beck and Page would be proud of.
He has to occasionally sip from a mug, joking with the audience that its not whisky, and had to admit that during the previous song he was hurting quite a bit. That doesn’t deter him from playing one the best cover versions I’ve heard in a while, ‘Latch’ originally Disclosure/Sam Smith, but when Garratt sings it’s a whole new song, stripped back beautifully to fit his own style.
Garratt is totally overwhelmed with the support ,and almost in tears when wave after wave of applause and cheers for him keep coming, he bursts into a ‘Happy Birthday’ sing song for a long time crew member and it feels like you’re part of one big family party. Garratt admitting that he doesn’t want tonight to end, even offering to stay back at the merchandise stall to shake everyone’s hand at the end.
Playing ‘Weathered’ a relatively new release, he builds the track from a slow beat adding layers of keys and vocals plus the aforementioned guitar blasts. There are artists that can claim to be multi-instrumentalists but not many that can put on a show where they do genuinely shift from one to another during the same song. As a result, there really is something for everyone here and an artist that will appeal to the R&B crowd alongside the alt folk Mums and Dads. It will be interesting to see how he is received by the Mumford&Sons fans at Wembley in a couple of weeks when he pays support to the beardy ones.
‘The Love You’re Given’ with its trademark high vocal loop is copied by the audience and eventually Jack himself adds his own live version at the end, probably straining those vocal chords in the process. Good job there’s only one song left on the set then, and it is that same song I witnessed in Leeds ‘Worry’, still the same intense guitar at the end, and its the first and last time tonight that Garratt ventures beyond the Go Pro limits of the stage pulling another fresh fender solo out of the bag.
Jack Garratt is yet to release an album, but its coming, in February 2016 and he’s already booked Brixton Academy in April of that year. This was one of my favourite live shows I’ve seen this year (and I’ve seen a few). His T shirts have #WTFISAJACKGARRATT emblazoned across them and I can guarantee you, that this time next year everyone will know.
COMMENTS
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Lets keep revisiting this review as he wins every award in 2016, Brits Critics Choice, BBC Sound of 2016, remember where you read it first !
