Vance Joy - Dream Your Life Away
2014 has been a phenomenal year for James Keogh aka Vance Joy with his break out song Riptide becoming a permanent fixture on radio station playlists across the world and his recently released debut album, Dream Your Life Away reached the Top 20 in the UK and US, and hit the number one spot in Australia in its first week of release.
Vance Joy spent two nights at the Shepherds Bush Empire, both shows had sold out much like the rest of his UK tour. Given that not so long ago he was play open mic nights, Vance Joy seemed incredibly relaxed and at ease whilst performing to a packed venue - a good majority of which was filled by adoring, screaming female fans.
Joy was backed by a three-piece band who were all introduced to the crowd, sadly, he was barely audible when talking to the crowd, however the banter was kept to a minimum as he worked through his 60 minute set which featured a fabulous version of Bruce Springsteen's Dancing In The Dark.
The crowd seemed to be incredibly au fait with Joy's lyrics which is no mean feat considering his album Dream Your Life Away was only released a couple of weeks earlier. His fans happily sung along with each and every song.
The moments where Joy traded his guitar for a ukulele got the biggest reactions of the night, probably because it meant a hit song was about to follow. The room exploded as he played the opening chords to Riptide, of course, the entire crowd sung and danced along with the track. Other crowd pleasers included Emmylou and Play With Fire.
Vance Joy is becoming an unstoppable force, he put on a great show, is lyrically dexterous and a talented musician, a musician who has seemingly made the ukulele sexy. Needlessly to say Joy will be playing much bigger rooms when he returns to the UK.