Ed Harcourt @ Echoplex, 3/10/08

Ed Harcourt cannot catch a break. The brilliant songwriter played his first LA show in years last night and only a couple hundred people showed up. Perhaps it was because it was a Monday and many LA-folks will be seeing him at SXSW later this week? Who knows, but those who did make it out got one hell of a show.

This was Ed's first show with his new 4-piece band which features a guy on trumpet, Ed's wife Gita on violin, and Ashley Dzerigian (ex-Great Northern) on bass. The band sounded very tight, you never would have guessed this was their first show together. The setlist was as much a representation of Ed's Best Of as it was a showcase of his most recent album, The Beautiful Lie.

Ed jumped from piano to acoustic/electric guitar at various points throughout the set and was in good spirits, even when he forgot the words to a song. He also told the crowd about how he had recently been staying in nearby Pasadena and enjoying El Cholo and The Cheesecake Factory (!) Haha! All in all, it was the first great show I've seen in over a month.

Here are some of the songs that were played (though not in order):

• "Born In The 70's"
• "All of Your Days Will Be Blessed"
• "Visit From the Dead Dog"
• "This One's for You"
• "You Only Call Me When You're Drunk"
• "Black Dress"
• "Fireflies Take Flight"
• "Shadowboxing"
• "Scatterbraine"
• "Good Friends Are Hard to Find" [Ed solo]
• "Rain On The Pretty Ones" [Ed & Gita]

The Beautiful Lie (his 4th album) was released in the UK in June '06, and will finally get a U.S. release on June 2nd via Dovecoat Records.

Btw, keep your eye on the Flickr photo stream on the right-hand side of this page as I'll be uploading photos to there throughout SXSW this week.

My SXSW schedule:

• Wednesday, March 12th
• Thursday, March 13th
• Friday, March 14th
• Saturday, March 15th

Comments

[BJ DeHut]

I was totally going to see if you wanted to go to Shakey's this week but then I found YOU ARE AT SXSW! Hope you have a great time!