George Ezra is a very pleasant, happy, Englishman, who clearly enjoyed every moment of playing in the sweltering old Adelaide theatre.
On a very warm night (29 January) at Thebarton Theatre, people turned out in droves to see George Ezra packing the theatre to the rafters to support his most recent album ‘Staying At Tamara’s’.
He got straight into ‘Don't Matter Now’ and ‘Barcelona’, before speaking to us for the first time about his next track. “There was this hill where I could look over the whole city, and I would just watch the people come and go and I wrote it all down in this book. And this particular spot inspired a song called ‘Pretty Shining People’.”
'Saviour' got a makeover without First Aid Kit being able to join him onstage. But it was just as striking; almost amazingly so.
“The sky was blue and absolutely everyone was having a lovely time, and then I got sick… [Crowd: awwwww] Right on cue thank you very much. So I’m on the tour bus and I’m feeling sorry for myself, and this tune came into my head which I recorded on my phone and forgot about and that tune went like this,” and off he went with ‘Paradise’.
As I stood there very sweaty, fanning myself with a piece of paper, and waiting for the song I was most excited to hear, from his new album, ‘Only A Human’ (which unfortunately didn’t make the setlist), I thought about how, at every gig I have had the pleasure of going to lately, I have found a song that I didn’t necessarily know or hadn’t paid enough attention to, and that song has become my new favourite.
This happened for two songs last night. George’s performances of the song which never quite got a name, but is affectionately known as ‘Song 6’ from his first album, and ‘Hold My Girl’ from his touring album were two magical moments for me: “I’ve got time, I’ve got love, got confidence you’ll rise above, give me a minute to hold my girl.”
Then it was time for more storytelling. “I got to the address where I was staying [in Sweden] and these three girls were very excited, but it turned out they were excited because it was Eurovision time.
“And at this point in the story when they told me that you can’t buy alcohol after a certain time in this town; and for those who watch Eurovision you know I wasn’t going to watch it sober, so please don’t judge me for this but I ended up buying a bottle of rum off a man in a park… [audience applauds] no don’t clap that, you’re better than that.
“So I drank this rum and I didn’t feel great the next day, so I decided to stay in Sweden for an extra night and I missed the next town I planned to visit completely. And that town was ‘Budapest’.”
He then left the stage much to the horror of the audience, who quickly started stomping heavily on the wooden floorboards, cheering loudly for him to return for an encore.
He returned for one last party, playing ‘Cassy O'’ and a song he said he had played in every city around the world and always managed to have a great time with, ‘Shotgun’.
The screams of the crowd were insane last night – one of the most ear-piercing finales I have ever encountered at Thebarton Theatre; proving that sweet, smiley George Ezra is very much loved in Adelaide. Good guys definitely don’t always finish last.
