Gig Review: Kevin Morby At Hoxton Hall London
East London's Hoxton Hall is a beautiful venue. It feels more Parisian than London. Its narrow balconies, creaky floorboards and paper thin walls feel like they could fold in on each other at any minute, like a house of cards. But instead of caving, the venue is held up by the bustling chatter of the excited audience below, eagerly waiting for Kevin Morby and his travelling band to take the stage.
This Is a Photograph, Morby’s seventh studio album is a soul shaking carousel of life itself. Since its release earlier this year, KM, in his golden tassel jacket, has been on the road sharing the record in it’s live format and tonight is our turn.
From the get go, the sound is rich and full, you can feel it touch the lamps centred on the ceiling roses. It makes sense to open with the This Is a Photograph’s title track. The track's initial inspiration detailed here. Highlights of the album in this live environment include: A Random Act of Kindness and Rock Bottom. A stand out song is Stop Before I Cry, a sweet love declaration to Katie (Crutchfield / Waxahatchee), it was as delicate and as charming as the flowers wrapped around the mics on stage. His full band consists of drums, keys, woodwind, guitar, bass and backing vocals, together they play tightly and expressively, complimenting Kevin Morby’s lyrical story-telling.
We are taken further through KM’s catalogue in chronological order of new to old, although we return back to This Is a Photograph tracks: A Coat of Butterflies and Goodbye to the good times for the “last songs,” before encoring with Beautiful Strangers and an explosive rendition of Harlem River.
Morby has a lot of albums under his belt, each body of work all seems to be the perfect time capsule soundtrack to whatever period of your life you find yourself in. Whether it’s your first day of university or your standing on the escalator with the last of your ex partner’s things. Sharing Beautiful Strangers to your friend for the first time or saying goodbye to someone close to you who you aren’t going to see again (in this lifetime anyway). Or maybe it’s just the ending of that Bojack episode. There is a Kevin Morby song for it all. In a reflective birthday substack post, Morby briefly comments on his awareness for providing music scores to peoples lives. It's a trade off you make as a musician. The sonder of this could be overwhelming for some, but it doesn’t seem to phase KM as he jumps around with his guitar on stage. “It feels like we are just hanging out” he comfortably says to the audience in between songs.
It’s a privilege to hear Kevin Morby’s music on whatever medium you choose but to experience it in a live setting is truly wonderful. It's no wonder that the show was sold out tonight. Just like photographs, you can get lost in the sonic landscape Kevin Morby paints, made even more real in Hoxton Hall, London, September 1st, 2022.