I Just Read About That…

[ATTENDED:  June 21, 2019] Jack Savoretti

I bought these tickets for Dido back in November!  There was no mention of an opening act until recently.

I had not heard of Jack Savoretti.  I looked him up and saw that he was English solo acoustic singer of Italian descent.  His song “Candlelight” peaked at #70 in the UK Charts in 2019.

I assumed he’d be a solo folk singer.  But he had a full band with him.

Jack has a gruff voice–but not too gruff, S. informed me.  I rather liked him.  His songs were catchy and thoughtful.  Although honestly it was all kind of forgettable.

But my first thought was that he must certainly appeal to the hypothetical “woman of a certain age.”  He is in his 30s, handsome, rugged-sounding.  And he’s a family man.  I just imagined women throwing their knickers at him in Vegas someday.  Actually I suppose women don’t do that anymore, so whatever the 21st century equivalent is.  There were actually two drunk British women of a certain age behind us and when he came out they started yelling, “hey there, Jackie boy!”  They apparently also almost got into  fight with some one.

“Home” had a nice catchy Ho-oh-oh-me” chorus which got my toes tapping.

He played acoustic guitar.  For some of his songs it was just him for a few measures and then his band would kick in and the song would rock out.  The lead guitarist had some good solos.

I had a lot of fun watching the drummer.  I like when the drummer is up front like this so you can see him.  He seemed to have extra fun at the end of the last song, “Toe Me Down” when he got to do some tight ills as the song and set ended.

Jack told some endearing stories between songs.  The most interesting was the one where he talked about bringing gifts home for his daughter when he goes on tour.  His daughter was 7 and her friend asked what her dad did.  She shrugged and said, he travels the world singing to strangers.

Its interesting that he played three songs from his new record and three from the one before his previous one, but only one from the previous one.

I thought it was nice to have an opening act that I liked but that I wasn’t blown away by.  A perfectly nice intro to the music of Dido.

1. Home ϖ
2. When We Were Lovers §
3. Better Off Without Me ξ
4. Singing to Strangers (Interlude) ξ
5. The Other Side of Love ϖ
6. Candlelight ξ
7. Tie Me Down ϖ

ϖ Written in Scars (2015)
§ Sleep No More (2016)
ξ Singing to Strangers (2019)