We don’t know about you, but we always make sure we turn up to a gig in time to see the support act.
You just never know who you’re going to see. We went to see Tom Odell a few years ago, and his opening act was a velvet-voiced singer/songwriter with a funny taste in hats. We hadn’t at the time, but you may have heard of him now: his name’s James Bay. One of our dads went to a U2 show last summer, and he was pleasantly surprised to find that a certain Noel Gallagher would be warming up for Ireland’s – and his – favourite sunglass/political aficionados. A friend of a friend swears that he once saw Ed Sheeran warming up for Nizlopi. It’s a funny old game, and you never know what you’re going to get; but, occasionally, you stumble across a cracker.
This is precisely why we made a point of turning up early to see the support act when we went to see Plan B earlier this week. Admittedly, this time, we didn’t go in blind; in fact, it’s almost fair to say that we were more excited about seeing the opener than we were about seeing the main event.
That, dear reader, is because Plan B was supported by none other than the inimitable Hak Baker.
There’s a reason we’ve been fans of this guy for a while
In case you haven’t heard of him, let us offer you A Brief History Of Hak Baker. Born and raised in East London, Hak has spent the last couple of years crafting a collection of songs that fall under a genre that he calls ‘g-folk’; but, to you and I, they’re socio-political alt-folk tracks with laugh-out-loud lyrics and a serious point behind each and every one of them.
Do you know what our favourite thing about Hak Baker is, though?
Well, it’s his live shows. From the moment he strode onto the stage at Colston Hall, he had the crowd in the palm of his hand – and for good reason, we hasten to add. When he wasn’t spurting out razor-sharp lyrics, he was making the audience howl with laughter with his on-stage chatter; and, when he wasn’t passing bottled beers to the members of his band (including an Actual Trumpet Player), he was proving himself to be a deceptively sentimental soul by crooning away over a softly finger-picked acoustic melody.
You really do need to check him out when you can
We’re not sure how to define him, but we do know a couple of things: he’s seriously impressive, he’s majorly talented, and we can’t wait to see him again the next time he comes to town. So, the next time you get the opportunity to go to a Hak Baker show, make sure you take it up – we can guarantee that you won’t regret it.
