Gig review: Benjamin Francis Leftwich, O2 ABC, Glasgow
Benjamin Francis Leftwich
O2 ABC, Glasgow
Star rating: * * *
More than two years spent touring his debut album Last Smoke Before the Snow Storm has quietly taken this 23-year-old York singer-songwriter to a point where he’s headlining sizeable venues. He’s not quite filling them, mind – ABC1 can’t have even been at half-capacity. But as the tousle-haired lad huskily wooed a reverent crowd with the undeniably pretty Pictures, it was easy to imagine a full house every bit as rapt. In any case, this was a major step on from his first show in Glasgow when, as Leftwich recalled, he played King Tut’s bar to an audience of one and was supported by a pub quiz.
With his three-piece band bringing an amplified edge, there was a distinct hint of Ryan Adams’ rootsy Americana about certain numbers – the sighing pedal-steel guitar ornamented Manchester Snow for one. As a soloist – and Maps sung unplugged from the edge of the stage to pin-drop quiet well evidenced his powers in that regard – at his best Leftwich touches on a little of Elliot Smith’s cathartic acoustica.
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Hide AdA wimpy cover of Arcade Fire’s Lies could probably have been disposed of, and Stole You Away recalled the plodding post-Britpop torpor of early-noughties Travis.
Much better, come the encore, was Atlas Hands – a song that sounds one smart sync in a trendy indie movie away from making a big star of Leftwich.