Jolly Good Show!

Just got in from seeing Martha Wainwright in concert at the Royal Festival Hall...
Wow!!!
Not perfect, but really really amazingly good.
The reason it wasn't perfect was because, well, I think her 2nd album isn't so strong, and whenever she did a song from it with the band (pretty much the first half hour), it just seemed so by-the-numbers and workman-like... a bit flat (and the band's two 'solo' numbers didn't quite work either).
The stuff from the first album was so much more organic and exciting to watch...
And that wasn't it...
(Sorry about all the ellipses...)
You see, the Wainwrights are famous for doing lots of family things on stage and collaborations and the like. So Martha brought on loads and loads of guest singers including Ed Harcourt, Romeo from Magic Numbers, Beth Orton (!) (who I thought she said was 'Seth Gordon' and i got really confused until I realised who it was) and best of all - this guy called Shlomo who is a human beatbox thingy - yeah I know, sounds rubbish, but it was AMAZING and he performed my favourite song with Martha - This Life from the first album.
And of course, we got Bloody Mother Fucking Arsehole, which is such a brilliant song.
Strange audience though - very grey and old! The couple in front of me must have been in their 60s. (Not that I'm being age-ist or anything.)
So I may not have left the concert dying to listen to Martha's new album again, but it certainly made me want to put Beth Orton back onto my ipod and investigate Shlomo more (http://shlo.co.uk)

(Oh, quick anecdote, I first saw Martha at a much more intimate gig a couple of years back - La Scala I think in Kings Cross - but she didn't come on stage til 9.30 so I totally missed the end of it as I had to get home)