Jessie Ware has to be one of the most exciting British artists around right now. Her profile and popularity have been increasing at a very impressive rate over the past eighteen months – from the amazing critical response to her debut album Devotion throughout the last year to being nominated for two BRIT Awards last month, she’s well on her way to becoming a household name. We couldn’t wait to see how well her songs would work in a live setting, and whether that sensual emotion that’s splashed all over her album would be able to make the transition to the live environment.
Ware spent many years slaving away as a session singer, avoiding the limelight at all costs and only changing her ways after becoming envious of former classmate Jack Penate when he started to see chart success. You would perhaps assume that this would leave her as a reluctant performer of little stage presence, but the truth is quite the opposite. Ware has the air of someone who has grown to be a great performer over time, and she seems genuinely happy that anyone has even bothered to come and see her at all.
The set is probably as close as they come to being flawless when considering it’s made up of tracks from mostly one album. It would be easy enough to pigeonhole Ware’s music into the same category as the likes of Emeli Sandé, but there’s a more sophisticated musician on show here. I think if she were to be compared to one artist, it would have to be Sade. The sultry instrumentation and excellent production on the record are a great testimony to this, but it’s the superb vocals that make it official. I had never considered it one of my favourites from the record, but Swan Song was probably my highlight of the night. The power in Ware’s voice is just astonishing – she’s like the mental lovechild of Adele and Beyoncé and she sounds flipping fantastic.
Support act Laura Mvula is styled brilliantly, and the songs are very nice, but there’s a feeling that they’re perhaps a bit lost in a venue as large as Bristol’s O2 Academy. Jessie Ware played a much smaller gig in Thekla a few months before, and Mvula probably would have shined a bit more there; the hustle and bustle of people arriving, talking and moving around means that a good chunk of her set was probably (and sadly) ignored by most.
Let’s be honest here – we already knew she was talented. The true revelation of the night is just how much fun Jessie Ware is. She jokes about her posture makes it look a bit like she needs the toilet, she reminisces about her love of Bristol and of how she recorded many of her tracks here with Bashmore, and of how she’d won her first award that day. She’s absolutely charming, oozing personality as she grows in confidence throughout the night, and frankly you can imagine her being brilliant to go to the pub with.
Jessie Ware live is everything you’d expect from her and more. Considering how brilliant that debut album is, you have to wonder just how much better she’s going to get over the next few years, and we can’t wait to hear more from her.
