Thursday 8 March 2012

Give A Big Scottish Welcome To... Gavin DeGraw!

For the first time ever, American singer songwriter Gavin DeGraw took a visit to Glasgow on his recent European tour.  It's no surprise that the gig at the O2 ABC was a sell out as not only is he incredibly talented, but he is a fantastic performer!  Since I follow Gavin on Twitter, I felt like I'd been following the tour from the beginning as he had been tweeting about the other dates which built up an excitement for the event as it got closer and closer.  I even flew into Sweden on the same day as he was flying in to play the first show of the tour there. Unfortunately we never crossed paths as we were flying to different airports.


But back to the Glasgow show, after a short acoustic set from the Spanish support Juan Zelada, Gavin took to the stage and had the crowd roaring from the moment they caught the first glimpse of him.  He opened the show with my personal favourite, 'Candy', and already his talent and character were evident as he saluted the audience and then soulfully sang and played piano accompanied by his band.  What I love about seeing artists and bands live is that they never sound the same as they do on the album and there is always improvisation and Gavin was no exception.

He then moved on to one of his most popular classics: the title track from his first album, 'Chariot'.  It without a doubt gained the best response from the audience as people danced and sang their hearts out and some people even pretended to play piano along with him.  The crowd banter was also very amusing as he joked around and at one point even invited a couple to come on stage to get engaged.

He played many other much loved classics from across all 4 of his albums as well as a cover of Maroon 5's 'Moves Like Jagger', combined with his attempt at Mick Jagger's moves, and then the band left the stage and he sang a few songs alone at his piano.  The atmosphere was incredible and he also explained the meaning behind the songs which is always great to hear from an artist themselves.

One of Gavin's most famous songs is 'I Don't Wanna Be' which is the theme tune to the popular American TV Drama 'One Tree Hill'.  Gavin also appeared on the show in the first series performing his song 'Chariot' in Karen's Cafe.  I took a recording of 'I Don't Wanna Be' at the show which you can see below:




After performing 'I Don't Wanna Be', he left the stage only to be called back for an encore by 1400 Scots who couldn't get enough.  He returned and performed another two songs: 'Radiation' and his most recent single 'Not Over You'.  This was followed by him climbing onto his piano and attempting to back flip off of it like a true rock star... even although it failed but I'll give him respect for attempting!  All in all it was a fantastic gig and I'd recommend that if he returns, which he promised he would, that you go along and see him for yourself.

Here is the full set list from the show:

1.   Candy
2.   Chariot
3.   Sweeter
4.   I Have You To Thank
5.   Soldier
6.   In Love With A Girl
7.   Where You Are
8.   Follow Through
9.   Chemical Party
10. Moves Like Jagger
11. More Than Anyone
12. You Know Where I'm At
13. Let's Get It On
14. Run Everytime
15. I Don't Wanna Be

Encore
16. Radiation
17. Not Over You

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