Here's
Erudites review from the show on Sunday night (yes SUNDAY night
)
Before The Dawn Review:
Having been fortunate enough to witness Kate Bush’s return to the stage, I thought I should share my impressions. If you have tickets for the remaining dates and don’t wish to know what happens stop reading NOW.
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Accompanied by five backing singers and seven musicians, Kate opened with Lilly, probably my favourite song from the Red Shoes album, although this version owed more to the recent reworking of the Director’s Cut. This was followed by Hounds Of Love, which I initially took for a bold move having been deployed so early in the set. However, this is Kate Bush and notions of a conventional setlist were quickly disabused. Her voice might have be a little deeper but it remains powerful and emotive, the first couple of songs punching straight to the gut.
During the opening six song salvo, which was performed as a conventional rock show, I had the impression that Kate wasn’t entirely comfortable, but a certain amount of nerves were only to be expected. That said, by the time Running Up That Hill concluded and the curtain dropped for the first of the evening’s set changes while yellow confetti rained down on the front stalls it was clear the show was going to be very special indeed.
A performance of the Nine Wave followed, not as music but as a fully realised stage show, which veered crazily from humour to tragedy in the course of its cycle, employing filmed sequences and traditional stagecraft. Kate appeared far more relaxed once she was in character, inhabiting the stage and songs in their entirety. When the curtain dropped at its conclusion for the intermission the audience rose for the first of the evening’s standing ovations.
The second set, based on a Sky Of Honey (disc two of 2005’s comeback album Ariel) proved less dramatic but no less engaging, the musicians translating the layered recording skilfully into the live environment, while back projection, mime and a puppeteer provided a visual exploration of the music.
A two song encore followed the conclusion of the second act, a solo piano performance of Among Angels from recent album 50 Words for Snow, followed by the return of the band for Cloudbusting, the opening drumming sounding like thunder from the gods.
I am neither the first to say it, and I certainly won’t be the last, but this was a “gig� like nothing else I have ever seen. The attention to detail, set design, dedication of all those involved, both onstage and off, make this a rare spectacular in the current age. It is, of course, completely untourable, the logistics of moving and setting up the staging being prohibitively expensive, but if you’re prepared to go to the mountain you’ll find your journey well rewarded.
will show up. He;s a big fan of The Hounds of Love, especially the production values if I remember rightly. 
