'Late Night Conversations' Part Two: Josh Rouse Stageit Concert June 24


I watched the second instalment of Josh Rouse's Late Night Conversations concert series on Stageit last night.  Once again, Josh delivered a fantastically varied setlist in which he played a wide range of tracks from previous albums, debuted a new track and took requests from the audience.  This time round, the sound quality was again very clear, aside from a slight delay at the very beginning, which was resolved within the duration of the first song.

Accompanied by Caio Bellveser on piano, Josh opened the set with a beautiful rendition of Bluebird St. (Caio joined Josh on bass for the remainder of the show).  An equally impressive Streetlights followed, in which Josh played harmonica in the into and middle 8 sections.  This is one of my favourite Rouse songs to hear live, it works so well played both acoustically and with a full band, and on this occasion I felt the harmonica added a nice touch to the intro.  Next up, Josh played a new track - Our Love (recorded with Brad Jones) - a lovely song with a very melodic sounding chorus.  Like all the new material he has been playing, I look forward to hearing how this track will sound as a studio recording on the upcoming album.

The tracks I enjoyed most were Fine Fine, Slaveship, and Lemon Tree.  Though the playing was tight throughout the set, I thought the bass and vocal harmonies were particularly great on these songs.  On a sidenote, I loved hearing El Otro Lado.  I've never heard it played live before and thought it was the perfect closure to a great show.  

The live chat window once again proved to be a great interaction tool for fans to request songs and ask Josh questions, and much like the first concert, people were suggesting he play shows dedicated to one particular album.  I asked if he would consider playing a Nashville show in London, to which he replied that he was looking at possibly doing something like this for the album's ten year anniversary.  This is a very cool idea, and it would be incredible if something came of it.

I am looking forward to the next in the series of these concerts.  Though the setlists have offered good variation so far, I would personally love to hear Sad Eyes and maybe some more tracks off the Bedroom Classics Volumes - songs like City Blues and O, I Need All The Love would sound great in these shows.

Setlist
Bluebird St.
Streetlights
Our Love
Dressed Up Like Nebraska
Sweetie
Comeback (Light Therapy)
Hollywood Bass Player
Fine Fine
Summertime
Slaveship
Lemon Tree
El Otro Lado

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