Bo Bruce at Bush Hall

Runner up of The Voice in 2012, Bo Bruce’s first UK tour took her onto the stage of Bush Hall on 26^th June, before heading on to Manchester. She’s clearly not afraid to close the gap between herself and the fans.  

She has a pixie-punk style and a voice like a late 90s/early 00s pop vocalist – an interesting mix for sure. The old saying is true: don’t judge a book by its cover.

She has a very good vocal and it’s nice to get back to real talent in an age of Auto-Tune.

She looked right at home on stage amid the glamorous feel of Bush Hall’s décor, in a dress somewhere between eveningwear and castaway rags. Her performance was theatrical, with the trailing bits on her outfit fluttering in the air, and many a skyward-raised or floor-lowered face accompanied by an uplifted arm and half clenched hand. She even took to shaking a drumbeater in the air partway through Ghost Town.

Speed the Fire had that classic pounding kick/tom-tom driven pop-ballad tone that sounds as if it belongs on a music video featuring someone on a windy, nondescript cliff edge. Holding the Light was probably the high point of the show: Bruce put the microphone back in the stand, got down off the stage and wandered through the crowd into the middle of the hall where she let loose with an acoustic rendition of the song. It’s always good to see the distance between crowd and artist diminished like that.

On the other hand, while she is vocally very competent, her style of singing doesn’t lend itself to enormous acoustic volume. The song itself was pretty soft, even the higher and louder notes, and in a space like Bush Hall, despite the crowd’s total silence, anyone standing near the back of the crowd may have had to strain their ears to enjoy the effect.  

Bo Bruce has a great voice and clearly appreciates her fans. The music in general feels vaguely run of the mill, and it would be nice to see some more innovation; it might sound cynical, but the theatrics felt slightly overdone at times. Nonetheless, this was a solid performance.

Francis Davies
Photos: Alberto Martínez 

For further information and future events visit Bo Bruce’s website here.