Kacey Musgraves

Kacey and the band were on fire! Great to see her headline this fantastic venue and hopefully she'll play here again. Crowd was absolutely insane and sang every song!!

Kacey and the band themselves were great although 25 minutes late coming onto to the stage. However later in the set she then apologised to the audience for coming on late to her LAST London gig so maybe this is just her “thing”. Maybe lyrics like late to the party are just her way of giving us notice of what she is like?😜. Warm up act Soccer Mommy (sic) was also very good, really strong clear vocals and a great voice with the touch of Aimee Mann about her. Shame they did not get the sound levels/ acoustics set up properly for her but hey, everyone was here to see Kacey Musgraves right? Set was a mixture of old favourites with stuff from the new album and as expected of top US Country/Americana stars was delivered completely professionally and her band were extremely good and actually reminded me a lot of Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band from the 1970s (and that is no mean compliment)! As she has apparently done at previous UK gigs on this tour, Kacey covered someone else’s song with the artist themselves and on this occasion it was Tom Chaplin from Keane where they duetted on “Something only we know” a song sadly personally ruined for me by the flaming John Lewis ad but this was a good version nonetheless. Twenty one songs - including three for the encore is a pretty good night’s work in my book. The Arena itself however was awful, started with a rip off £20 to park the car (for which we then (along with at least ten others) had to drive on every level several times for 25 minutes before finding a space (outside) and this was despite staff “monitoring “ traffic in and out! Then leaving the car park (red) on foot there were no signs telling us how to get to the Arena and even when we eventually found it (after basic directions from two different (and brusque/surly) security staff), there was not even a sign on the venue itself! Once inside, the arena staff themselves were no better; with three different people sending us the wrong way to our seats and then the guy that eventually (almost) got it right had to check our tickets literally four times in about 45 seconds! (And actually then still put us in the wrong seats, which we corrected later ourselves)! The seats themselves were also very small and close together (which given the “corpulent” size of many of the middle aged audience - including myself) was a real problem especially for people like my companion who was not so big as she was squished in between TWO very large people! Merchandise desk probably need to think about that as well as they would shift a lot more kit if they sold xxxl and 4xl sizes (genuinely). The size of the seats was not an issue for long however as within 15 seconds of the opening number everyone was forced onto their feet anyway and really does make having seats in the arena/stalls a bit pointless but I guess the management factor this in and can add a premium to for “seats”😡 The worst part however was one of the audience members who not once, not twice but SIX different times during quiet times in the set let out a horrible scream . Not one of those “whoop-whoop, yee-ha” type screams but a real “OMG they-just-cut-off-my-cat’s-head” type scream and whilst the first time it was mildly amusing by the sixth it was just really REALLY bloody annoying 😡. Kacey handled it well though but you could see that the second time she acknowledged it even she was not amused! Overall, I really enjoyed it but I have been wanting to see KM for a long time but even I came away wishing I had done so a few years ago and was left with the impression that things have got a little too big too soon for her and the attention to detail for fans on the logistics side was just not there. My companion who likes Musgraves but is not quite as big a fan as me just said to me at the end “you were ripped off”. A little harsh, IMO but the management do need to be careful of what they offer up in future. Not sure I will ever book tickets at SSE Wembley again though.

Fantastic performance, Kacey is quite unique in her style and content. Her voice sounds just as pure and clear live as it does on record.

Kacey was amazing live! Unfortunately it was sold out and I was the one stuck behind a pillar and could not see anything. But the music was amazing!

Just a great show with one of country’s greatest songwriters, accompanied by a band who mastered both her more poppy songs and the rootsy material to perfection. Thank you!

Kacey is a fireball wrapped in fantastic. She’s a musical treasure and the evening was such a gift to be present for. Just her and her guitar was pure magic.