PJ HARVEY PLAYS BEAUTIFUL SHOW AT
TK. MAXX PRESENTS.. THE PIECE HALL AT HALIFAX

★★★★★ (5/5)

**PJ HARVEY PERFORMING AT TK. MAXX PRESENTS... THE PIECE HALL AT HALIFAX**
**PHOTOCREDIT: JOHN HAYHURST**

This was my first visit to the iconic Piece Hall in Halifax and what a remarkable place it is. The stage is within easy view of most places and the sound seems to be pitch perfect wherever you are. I hadn’t seen PJ Harvey play live for quite a few years, so I was looking forward to it. But first up it was time for the support act Mica Levi, someone that I was not familiar with and without a doubt this is the worst support act that I have ever experienced. His overuse of effects and echo was for me, and many other people I spoke to, self-indulgent and very Avant Garde (as in the John Lennon definition*). Vocally it was like a tuneless drone in the main. I was captivated by the lady doing the signing for the deaf people in the audience, she was a real trouper. The most positive thing Mica did was shout Free Palestine before the last number. As a follow up I have listened to some of Mica’s soundtrack music on Spotify this morning and frankly it is brilliant. So, I am not sure what that musical mess was on the Piece Hall stage.

Finally, it was time for PJ Harvey to take the stage in Halifax. This was a real performance from PJ. The easy comparisons are with Bjork and Nick Cave, but I believe she has the same maverick qualities and musical strangeness that Kate Bush has in abundance. Polly is not just a musician, singer, and lyricist she is a poet and is arresting and stunning in both the playing and interpretation of her incredible canon of songs. This 22-song set spanned her whole career since the release of her first album, ‘Dry’ back in 1992. More than 30 years ago? Seriously? She played “Dress” from that album late in the set and it was both magical and ethereal. She opened the show with nine songs from last years ‘I Inside the Old Year Dying.’ From that group of tunes “Lwonesome Tonight” was a breathtaking moment, among many such moments during her set.

There were three songs from my favourite PJ Harvey album, ‘Let England Shake’ from 2011. “The Words That Maketh Murder” had the crowd foot tapping, even if the words are not that positive, but what a great song. There was a bombastic, barnstorming run through of the majestic “50ft Queenie” and “Down By The Water” was dark, mesmeric, and haunting. One of the best moments of the gig was Polly solo on acoustic guitar and that special, distinctive voice for “The Desperate Kingdom Of Love.” Where I was in the crowd you could have heard a pin drop. At that point she totally controlled the audience. She could have left the stage after twenty songs, and I am 100% sure everyone would have been satisfied with having seen a mountainous musical event. But there was more PJ gave the crowd a two-song encore of some of her finest songs “C’Mon Billy” and “White Chalk.” This was one of the best headline gigs I have experienced in quite a while.

*Lennon often spoke disparagingly and disapprovingly about the avant-garde art during the Beatles’ early years, allegedly saying, “avant-garde is French for bullshit.”