Five years after his performance opening the stunning Burlington Performing Arts Centre, Royal Wood returned Saturday night to mark the facility’s anniversary. Backed by a four-piece band, he delivered two sets of emotion-charged songs with guitar, ukulele, and haunting piano.
Wood interspersed his songs with anecdotes of first and lost loves and hilarious off-the-cuff remarks. (Indeed, some of the storytelling elicited a heckler’s demand for ‘more singing, less talking,’ a request that was roundly rejected by the majority of the audience.) Even a broken guitar string just before intermission didn’t mar what was a terrific concert, energetically and skillfully delivered.
The set lists included not only a mix of songs from Royal Wood’s latest project, but also older hits such as ‘Forever and Ever’ (which works marvelously as a singalong with the audience, even one that seemed less familiar with his body of work).
The concert was highly worth a rainy drive up from Pennsylvania – we look forward to having the chance to hear Royal Wood in concert again.
