Review - Bob Evans @ Toff in Town

“I can’t remember the last time I was here,” Evans mused after walking out on stage. “May 2007,” a precise fan instantly shouted back. This set the mood for the show with entertaining banter firing back and forth between Evans and the audience.

Evans is a true entertainer. He worked the audience to perfection with continual chatter between songs, anecdotes (he recently discovered his mum has a sex life) and requests from whoever could shout the loudest. This culminated in Evans calling up a random from the crowd to sing Darlin’ Won’t You Come. The random turned out to have a fantastic voice, hitting all the right notes and got some of the biggest cheers of the night.

Evans played a mixture of songs from Suburban Kid and Suburban Songbook, supported by piano and drums. The crowd were hooked from the first song but Nowhere Without You and Don’t You Think It’s Time got especially rousing responses.

Despite passing 30 (and confessing to the audience that he is still living with his mum), Evans hasn’t lost any of his enthusiasm. He sang with amazing energy and grinned like a game show host through the whole set. You got the feeling that he was genuinely wrapped to be there. The crowd caught his vibe and everyone was happy and floaty. It was almost as if they put something in the beer.

I thought I spied Tim Rogers across the room tapping one of his pointy boots and sure enough he came out on stage to join Evans for the last song. Unfortunately, Rogers seemed pretty out of it. He staggered around and bumbled through the words but Evans carried him through it.

This was an A+ 10 out of 10 show. Evans’ albums are catchy and clever but his sheer energy and stage presence elevated his songs to a new level. Even if you weren’t a fan of the music you would have been sucked in by his talent as an entertainer.

Word has it that Evans has a new album in the pipeline so hopefully we can look forward to another tour soon.