by Jon Bauer
Beth Gibbons doesn’t make music or tour often. Of course, she was lead singer of Bristol’s Portishead, who made 3 groundbreaking genre defining albums – Dummy (1994), Portishead (1997), and Third (2008). She visited San Francisco for each of those albums, and also when she made her 2002 Rustin Man collaboration album, Out of Season.
Then, last year (2024), fans were delighted to receive her first solo album Lives Outgrown, which she wrote over a decade, with topics ranging from “motherhood, anxiety, menopause, and mortality” and also somber subjects relating to loss and hope. The album went on to rank as one of the best ones of 2024. Line Of Best Fit said of the work: “That world-weary, time-hardened narration is wrapped up in a ritualistic, ceremonial arrangements – complete with pagan sounding drums, natural world sampling, and modal tonalities. Beneath celtic guitar lines reminiscent of Bert Jansch or Nick Drake boom dark, modal strings and percussive looping of found sonic elements like breathing, foot-stamping, and birdsong.”
Beth and her band created an environment that really highlighted this sentiment at their show at The Warfield on April 15th. The atmosphere – with beautiful back-lighting, ethereal strings, two sets of unique percussion sections, and Beth’s haunting voice help to bring her catalog to vibrant life.
The standing ovation at the end of the performance was well deserved.
Warming up the crowd was Bay Areas own Cass McCombs – who’s indie-folk guitar accompanied by bassist Brian Betancourt made for an enigmatic, sprawling, and deeply introspective set that perfectly prepared the audience for Beth.
Setlist:
Tell Me Who You Are Today
Burden Of Life
Floating On A Moment
Rewind
For Sale
Mysteries (Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man cover)
Lost Changes
Ocean
Tom the Model (Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man cover)
Beyond the Sun
Whispering Love
Encore:
Roads (Portishead)
Glory Box (Portishead)
Reaching Out
Beth Gibbons:
Cass McCombs:
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