Thea Gilmore, at the Junction J2

I arrived early enough to find a seat in the front row of J2, on the stranger two-seater flip-up seats. I was a little alarmed that initially I seemed to be the youngest person there, though I did spot a few others in the audience later (and Thea is 5 years younger than me too!) I found the venue a bit odd, particularly compared to J1 Grace Petrie gig in October. The audience were polite and friendly and almost conversational rather than super excited, but it was very good nevertheless.

Support was from Luke James Williams - one man, a guitar (and a ukulele on one track) an excellent bit of looping effects on one track, and some very heartfelt songs. Quietly enjoyable.

Thea came on after a short break, playing some songs solo on the guitar or piano, others with a backing track, and a few with live backing using a loop machine too. Highlights were Johnny Gets a Gun with the loop machine, and her cover of Bad Moon Rising - particularly as I remember her playing it at the folk festival a lot of years ago 🙂 I really liked how Luke's Rabbithole and Thea's Rise complemented each other. I shall have to look out for the Zack Snyder Zombie film as it obviously has an excellent soundtrack.

I totally need to get some of her more recent work - I'm glad I listened to some on YouTube this week in advance.

She finished the main set with Last, which is fabulous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26gHzEuya7E



Bonus perk: spotting a fox on the cycle home, and stopping to look at the stars with the binoculars when I got home. Jupiter still stunning.