Leann Rimes @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham – Saturday 14th September 2013
I can see why the gig was at Symphony Hall tonight as Leann Rimes, who’s released 14 albums and sold 37 million records, is a legend. But tonight (as Leann put it) we were in her “front room.” And being as we were in the 31 year old’s front room, we were very reserved and cautious. Even though Leann was rocking the Symphony Hall, fans were stationed to their chairs. The more lively hits ‘Can’t Stop The Moonlight’ and ‘Nothin’ Better To Do’ should only be performed at a barn. But it was the powerful ballads that fit the location. ‘Probably wouldn’t be this way’ and ‘How do I live?’ received standing ovations.
It’d be rude not to mention the support act that goes along by the name of Logan Mize as it was the Clearwater, Kansas artist’s first time out of the states. For the first 15 minutes I was really enjoying the humorous anecdotes and meaningful, authentic songs. As Logan puts it, he wants to “tell the whole world the truth.” And he did just that with a song handily called “Tell the Truth”, inspired by a dream where his late grandfather told him to always tell the truth. Songs like ‘Rock N Roll Band’ were well thought out and Logan Mize, like most country singers, had a brilliant recording voice. But half way through the set, Logan asked us if we hated him yet and the light hearted stories leading into songs slowly got more and more depressing as Mize revealed that he was bored of writing songs. I think the country singer was missing his rock ‘n’ roll band tonight; if he’d had a band behind him he might’ve connected with the audience more, but I must say that the set flowed comfortably with Logan Mize.
There was no introduction. The band walked on, started playing and out strolled Leann Rimes in her tight leather jeans and huge heels. There was not a word from Rimes between the first two songs as her lively opener ‘Nothin’ better to do’ did the talking. The lack of communication with the crowd at the very beginning was probably due to the bad cold Leann was suffering from. But doctors in the UK had given her “lots of drugs” to get her ready to perform on stage. You could see that it meant a lot to be on stage for the Mississippi country singer songwriter (well it was that or the drugs…).
Just as things were heating up in the Symphony Hall things got slowed right down for ‘Probably wouldn’t be this way’ and ‘Last Thing On My Mind’, a song performed on the album with close friend Ronan Keating, who Leann wished she could bring on tour with her. The ballads carried on with songs off the new album like ‘Borrowed’ and ‘What have I done?’, which made good use of band member Dusty, on the steels. The band were exceptionally good throughout and laid back as a country band should be. As the night drew to an end it was time for the commercialised hits, ‘Can’t stop the moonlight’ and ‘How do I live?’ This is where I expected the audience to get involved but people were still glued to their chairs. A small sway started for ‘How Do I live’ but that was it.
To wrap the evening up, Leann was welling up singing ‘I can’t make you love me’ and left the stage to wait for the crowd to call her back on. This is where finally people stood up and gave Leann the appreciation she deserved for a brilliant night full of hits. As Leann Rimes had 14 albums to pick from every song on the set list tonight was enjoyable. To round up the night, as an encore, Leann took her heels off and sat on the floor with her guitarist and did her rendition of the classic ‘Hallelujah’.
Review by John Kirby
Photos by Steve Roche