Review By: Lee Abrahall
Twitter: @Official_LeeA

Concert: Bluesfest
Artists: Beth Hart, Zac Brown Band
Date: 7pm Saturday 27th October 2018
Location: The O2, London

Where do I start with this review? Let me start at the beginning when they gave the announcement of the Blues Fest Acts. When I saw Zac Brown Band were to perform at the Bluesfest it raised an eyelid, but it was ZBB so I went with it. The timing of the event seemed a little strange to me as we already had the announcement of Country Music Week and fans had already committed to purchasing tickets for the wonderful show choices available.

However, as I said it was ZBB and I had to go. I’ve loved seeing them in the past. When I saw the prices of the tickets, I thought they were extremely high even compared to C2C prices – this made me worry that it was never going to sell out.

As we entered the O2 the staff were upgrading peoples tickets who had purchased tickets in the upper tier, in fact they had curtained off the top section and closed it completely. Even then there was still the odd spare seat in the lower sections.

ZAC BROWN BAND- Photo Credit: Danny Clinch

Beth Hart came on stage first. This was the first time I had seen Beth Hart and I thought she had a powerful voice and very good stage presence. I spoke to some people who had gone to the gig just to see her and they had never heard of Zac Brown Band (crazy).

There was a lot of mixed opinions from the crowd after the gig regarding Zac Brown Band. Responses of ‘They were great’, ‘They were amazing’ ‘Fantastic band’, to the other spectrum where fans were saying ‘Too many covers’, ‘What was that ending!?’, ‘Why such a short set?’.

Zac Brown Band were late coming out due to technical issues and this reduced their set to maybe 80 minutes, for which Zac did apologise.

ZBB played a number of their own songs including some of their greats My Old Man, Colder Weather, Chicken Fried and Homegrown which all got the crowd up and singing along. In fact the guy I spoke to who only went for Beth Hart couldn’t believe the negative reaction Zac Brown Band got as he thought they were great.

Anyone who has been to see Zac Brown band before will know that they like to do the odd cover song. They played their own twist on Use Somebody by Kings of Leon, Enter Sandman by Metallica, but the strangest choice for me was their final number of the night, Sabotage by The Beastie Boys. Personally I couldn’t believe they finished their set with that, but you can’t deny their talent. It wasn’t my favourite Zac Brown Band concert but it certainly wont stop me going again.