Live: Rhodes

27th October

Deaf Institute

7/10

David Rhodes made his second appearance at Deaf Institute while on his current UK tour. His first performance at the venue was supporting another artist, and now he’s returning as the main event.  His career has quickly escalated since the release of his EP Raise Your Love this time last year. His current EP Home has reached number 3 in the iTunes Album charts.

His two solo supporting acts both took on a similar artistic style to Rhodes with their soulful tunes about past lovers. MyLyricalMind didn’t seem to impress the audience as his songs seemed to all sound the same. Frances, however, really captivated the audience with her impressive vocal range and meaningful lyrics.

Rhodes’ performance was quite intimate with him alone on stage apart from two guitars and a keyboard. The stage set up, however, was quite tacky, with an annoying little smoke machine in the corner puffing out pathetic steam and unflattering blue flower shaped lights that were projected onto his face which he requested to be turned down twice.

He started off with ‘Morning’ from his second EP immediately seizing the audience with his effortless earthy tones echoing through the small venue. They were in silent bewilderment aside from the one avid fan-girl in the back who was singing along to every word. He did a mixture of all his tracks with ‘Run’, ‘Raise Your Love’ and ‘Darker Side’ from his first EP and ‘Breathe’ from his new EP Home. He played two songs on the keyboard, one of which was one of his new songs that hadn’t been played live before. He admitted he wasn’t very confident on the keyboard, though this did not let on in his flawless performance. He ended with my all-time personal favorite ‘Your Soul’, effortlessly switching between swimmingly calm tones and gritty yells. Singing, “I just want to hold your hand” in a very Beatles like fashion made you fall in love with him. Despite doing quite a few songs the show felt quite short and left the audience wanting more!