First Night Chatham with Zoë Lewis ~ 2018 December 31 ~ Chatham, MA
Zoë Lewis accompanying herself on electric piano, harmonica, kazoo, acoustic guitar, ukulele, spoons, washboard, bicycle bell, whistle.
Set List
First Set: Baby - 78 - Always a Sixpence - Breakfast Blues - Stars Came Out Today - Never Too Old To Be Young - You're Just Perfect - Plastic Soup - These Shoes
Second Set:
Breakfast in Bangkok - Welcome to the Circus - Prince of Love - Little Lovin' - Barbazon - Bicycle - Very Fine
Setlist also available at https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/zoe-lewis/2018/orpheum-theater-chatham-ma-3b940018.html
Scroll to below videos for review of the show.
Videos
These Shoes
Breakfast in Bangkok
Review
Last year at Chatham First Night the temperature was in the single digits with a windchill starting with a minus sign. No wonder this year's festival, with temps about forty degrees higher, featured roughly double the attendance.
Concert Going Partner and I are getting to know the geography of First Night, so we parked up by the elementary school and popped in to hear a few songs by Bradley James, a sixteen year old phenom who bills himself as the Boston Piano Kid. A talented pianist, singer, and saxophone player, Bradley entertained the audience with some known songs from the rock 'n' roll era as well as a couple of jazzy numbers on the sax. He played a few tunes by Billy Joel, but the one I liked best was "Great Balls of Fire," during which he played the piano with his foot, Jerry Lee Lewis-style.
Next stop was down the hill to the Chatham Orpheum Theater, where we caught most of the set by Out Late with Diana Di Goia, a four piece combo that we first heard at last year's First Night. Diana has a witty and down to earth stage personality and songs to match.
Next up was the headliner: Zoë Lewis. Originally from England and now living in Provincetown for close to three decades, Zoë is one of the best singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist/entertainers anywhere. She has a wonderful singing voice, huge talent on any musical instrument you can bring her, a wonderful sense of humor, and an upbeat optimism that guarantees putting a smile on your face. She is a great storyteller, with her song intros ranging from the very funny to the very poignant. She brought up two children from the audience to illustrate the song "Plastic Soup" with signs saying "NO." She illustrates the song "Welcome to the Circus" with spinning four plastic plates on long sticks. Didn't I say she is a multi-entertainer? Besides being really sincere, and really sweet, she's a little unusual. Who else performs a song about riding a bicycle while playing a washboard livened up with a bicycle bell? It would be hard to put her into a genre. There's a bit of jazz in her approach, there's lot of blues and folk, and a giant heaping of straightahead pop fun.
At six o'clock the festival took a one hour break, time enough for the "noise parade" and fireworks over the ballpark where the local team in the Cape Cod Baseball League plays, and a chance to grab a bit to eat. After our snack we moseyed back up the hill to the Holy Redeemer Church where we watched sets by folk duo Patterson and Sweeney and Celtic band The Clancy Tradition. On the road by 9:00 pm we were home early before the New Years Eve revellers were behind the wheel.
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