My eyes are green – cos I eat a lot of vegetables

Erykah Badu
Somerset House Summer Series

by Miscellaneous

Hmmmm. I had been looking forward to this gig all week, and even went so far as to proclaim today Badu Day (only the sounds of Erykah were permitted in my vicinity), but in the end I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped. The main factor in this was the fact that the sound tonight was DREADFUL. The vocals were given no space at all and were drowned out most of the time by the horribly heavy bass. Such a shame because Erykah Badu’s voice is so unusual and her lyrics so original.

So that was annoying. Also, she’s not terribly engaging as a performer. Unlike someone like Jill Scott, who really gets the audience involved in the show, Erykah just does her thing really and doesn’t ask much of you. This might explain the slightly lacklustre response of the audience who spent most of the evening nattering or snogging (we were surrounded at all corners by disgusting couples).

However, Ms Badu looked SUPER HOT, entering in flowing white robes and peeling off layers gradually. Grrrr. I totally would’ve. And she sounded fantastic on a cappella or almost-a cappella bits. In fact, I thought the encore was the best bit. She seemed really warmed up and went for it proper. Gave it a bit more welly. There were definite highlights to this gig, and I did get excited when she played my favourite songs, but it would have benefited from a bit more energy and better sound. She plays again tomorrow night so maybe the glitches will have been fixed by then.