Sheryl Crow is a mere two years away from hitting the dreaded age of 50 but with Hammersmith Apollo sold out and the room boasting a large amount of middle aged men she is still every bit a rock goddess.
The nine-time Grammy award winner has already played at Manchester and Glasgow and tonight is her first performance in London this month.
Sheryl Crow is surrounded by a remarkable eight-piece funk/soul band, including a greedy set of two drummers and drum kits. At first glance it looks like there hasn’t been much thought and effort put into the set of the stage, however once the show gets started it is clear that all the money has gone towards the lights. They show an impressive range of colours and special effects that certainly make up for the mediocre stage setting.
The set starts off with Our Love Is Fading taken from Crow’s latest album 100 Miles from Memphis which boasts a fabulous funky feeling that gets the crowd started. It demonstrates the new direction Crow is taking, leaning more towards her hometown roots of funk, blues and soul music and away from commercial pop and rock ‘n’ roll songs.
The majority of the crowd have obviously all listened to Crow’s most recent work on repeat as they seem to be able to sing along to every song with no trouble, however those expecting her to do an assortment of her greatest hits are not left disappointed. If It Makes You Happy and Soak Up The Sun are on the setlist and make the crowd go crazy with excitement as they try to catch their breath from dancing and singing at the same time.
The Missouri born singer-songwriter managed to collaborate with some fantastic artists, like Keith Richards on Eye To Eye which offers an unusual reggae side of Crow.
The former Michael Jackson backing singer shows that despite her age and past of battling breast cancer she still likes to boogie when performing a live show. This was perhaps the only downside to her return to the UK. Her dancing definitely put off her talent and made her seem like the embarrassing older woman in a club grinding on her own, maybe not something appropriate for a mother of two young children.
During the 90 minute set Crow has shown that she prefers to keep the crowd dancing on their feet as she rarely performs any ballads. She does however play Strong Enough and a cover of Citizen Cope’s Sideways on a grand piano.
Sheryl Crow ends the night with an encore, including a medley of All I Wanna Do and Marvin Gaye’s Gotta Give It Up. She also sings in her cover of I Want You Back which on its own may not have a lasting memory but the show as a whole proves that no matter how old Sheryl Crow is she will still be a rock ‘n’ roll star.
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