Mahalia - Gorilla Manchester (17/10/18)

Last week I went to see Jorja Smith perform at the Albert Hall in Manchester; a good show with a surprise appearance from Maverick Sabre, but slightly forgettable. While Jorja never missed a note and her vocals were perfect and full of emotion, there was always a distance between her and the crowd. It felt like this show kind of lacked character. Another issue for me is that Jorja played an almost identical set in February prior to the release of her album, so the Lost & Found tour felt like a copy and paste show eight months down the line. For this reason, I decided not to review the show. In contrast, the same cannot be said of Mahalia’s sold out Gorilla performance on Wednesday, despite the singer having supported Jorja at the performance I attended in February.

An error with set time release saw us rush to the venue for eight o’clock when she had, confusingly, been announced to start, but upon arrival it was evident that there had been a mix up. We had instead run to the bus stop to catch the set of Jvck James, who ended up being far from disappointing. Aware that the crowd would need to be won over, having been expecting Mahalia, Jvck succeeded in some good audience participation which went down very well. His vocals were smooth and his persona cool and likeable. He did a cover of Bob Marley and Lauryn Hill’s ‘Turn Your Lights Down Low’ which was unexpected and got the crowd singing along. He was also extremely grateful for the opportunity given to him by Mahalia for bringing him along on the tour and was clearly humble and appreciative. He filled the room with a positive energy and freshness after many fans had rushed to the venue in fear of missing Mahalia, and I would recommend people catch his set if possible, or check out his COLORS video if not. Following the support, for some reason the next half an hour was filled with shitty UK R&B pop afro-beat fusions which painfully dragged out the wait for Mahalia.

Thinking back to Jorja’s polished, slick and impersonal performance, this couldn’t have been further from it. Mahalia’s set was part concert, part therapy session, in the best way. It was as though we had been let into her bedroom and she was filling us in with the latest gossip, while showing us planned dance routines she’d been practising. There’s something very candid and likable about the singer, who couldn’t stop smiling for the whole show. At every break, she told the crowd how happy she was to be there, filling them in on details such as her planned £20 ASOS outfit for the show that had turned out to be quilted, hence her wearing her own tour t-shirt in order to avoid sweating all over the front row.

She performed a full range of songs. I was really pleased to still hear the inclusion of ‘Silly Girl’ along with a few other songs from Diary Of Me, as it showed her sticking to her roots and holding on to her old work, respecting her long-term fans. I was also pleased that she included the features from Kojey Radical and Buddy even in their absence, recognising that the two both really take their respective tracks to the next level rather than filling their gaps with her own verses. ‘Hold On’ was in fact a highlight of the night, as Mahalia spotted a very enthusiastic fan next to me and grabbed her hand, before the girl took the opportunity to get up on stage (after a bit of a struggle) and dance with the singer. Mahalia took this in her stride and they finished the song together, with Jodienne becoming a bit of a show stealer and having what looked like the best night of her life. Additionally, the live performance of ‘Honeymoon’ really gave the song a new life as I didn’t enjoy it on the EP, but the live band and her strong vocals gave it a much better vibe. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for ‘Good Reason’ which for me still sounded a little strained, but that could be due to her losing her voice, taking short breaks to sip her tea. Regardless, the crowd were giving her un-resounding support the entire way through, even as she messed up at one point in ‘I Wish I Missed My Ex’, which only encouraged them to sing louder and made her even more endearing.

The show ended with a spoken word performance from an artist describing himself as her ‘big brother’ which was enjoyable enough, before he segwayed into ‘Sober’, at which point Mahalia ran back out to close the show. She couldn’t disguise her delight as the crowd sang the hit almost louder than she did, and it was a memorable end to the gig and to her tour as a whole. A tour she seemingly didn’t want to end, running back onto the stage to dance with the crowd to Cardi B as Jvck James returned, giving her a big hug and encouraging her adoring audience to scream for her one last time. The two looked genuinely pleased with the show they’d put on and rightfully so, with Mahalia’s anecdotes and advice resulting in a deeply personal performance, while still maintaining the ability to laugh at herself and marvel at the crowd’s knowledge of her lyrics.

By Aaron Georgious