Benjamin Francis Leftwich // NAC - 03.10.11

It was a sold out gig at our very own Arts Centre, with more people coming along just hoping for a ticket on the door. Some lucky, some not so lucky along with competition winners, were all greeted by the welcoming smiles and enthusiasm of the street team before even getting into the venue, which has an atmosphere of an excited calmness balanced to precision at the plucky fingertips of Benjamin Francis Leftwich, the man that the full house are all here to see tonight.

With the gig full and the audience's silent anticipation building in the dark, the stars backing the stage shone brighter as Benjamin graced the stage, guitar in hand. Starting off with ‘1904’, he brightens the room up even more as the audience's anticipations are fulfilled with Benjamin’s innocent style of playing, as it washes over the silent audience that “yeah, this guy really is that good”.  With Benjamin being just as impressed with the Arts Centre audience, he humbly stated at one point between songs, that only being three dates into his tour, this venue was the first to sell out! On that, he treats the audience to a new song, ‘Shine’ and finishes off his eleven-song set with the newest single from his album ‘Atlas Hands’. A great album can be ruined for a fan with a bad gig, although tonight that’s not the case, with the captivation of this audience I would say a lot of them will be listening to ‘The Last Smoke Before The Snow Storm' album on the way home, as tonight a great gig has just made a great album phenomenal!