[rating: 4]
Jack Garratt is one of the most exciting up and coming artists in the music scene. Winner of the 2015 Critics Choice Award at The Brit Awards he is on the road to a chart-topping career with the award previously being awarded to Adele, Florence and the Machine, Ellie Goulding, Tom Odell, Sam Smith and James Bay. He released his debut album Phase on the 19th February this year reaching number 3 in UK charts containing some magical tracks such as ‘The Love You’re Given’, ‘Worry’ and ‘Surprise Yourself’.
As a keen listener of his music for a while now, I was more than excited when my housemate discovered that he was playing at the O2 Institute in Birmingham this November (and for only 20 quid!) I was expecting a great performance, however what we got was nothing short of pure excellence. The term ‘one-man band’ and its connotations of being something unachievable and ridiculous definitely needs to be re-evaluated.
Jack Garratt is a talented multi-instrumentalist he is able, and very skilled in playing drums, piano, guitar, harmonica, mandolin, trombone and the ukulele. This was something I was aware of before attending the gig, but I was not prepared for him taking on all of them in one performance! During one song he used the keyboard, guitar, drums and not to mention his voice to create a performance that was mesmerising and mind-blowing. The effortlessness as he moved from instrument to instrument on stage, meanwhile showing off some seriously good dance moves, was at times, beyond comprehension!
Despite his obvious talents he never came across as aloof. His interactions with the audience were enthusiastic, humble and a lot of the time, funny. A section of the gig was taken up by him demonstrating his musical prowess by “pretending to cover a song but not actually covering it”, he teased the audience with some of the most iconic tracks from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears to the point where it was almost painful. Through his chatter with the audience it became quite clear that he is a bit of a nutter, but what more can you expect from a creative genius?!
He played all of his most loved tracks, a delicious array of his more upbeat bassy tracks to his slower more soulful ballads. His gig was a slick combination of musical skill and production and it was clear that the audience were more than satisfied!
