Jade Bird was introspective, vulnerable, and occasionally angry in her acoustic Free at Noon set

“Respect to those drinking!” Jade Bird said a few minutes into her Free at Noon performance today at World Cafe Life. “I guess it is a Friday lunchtime. You’re giving my parents a run for their money, it’s great.”

Same as her XPoNential Music Festival set, the UK singer-songwriter stripped her rootsy rock anthems down to a mostly solo acoustic performance, but it didn’t lose an ounce of punch as the band-oriented album versions; her back-catalog fave “Uh Huh” hit just as hard as the trilling and contemplative “Now Is The Time.”

Jade’s voice was a tad bit scratchy, and as she explained to the crowd, “I got a bit of a chest infection going on and now I know what Tom Waits feels like. Who knows what the next album is going to be like?”

Her new album, Different Kinds of Light, came out in August. As her XPNFest set showed, it deals a lot with heartbreak. Its songs are also introspective, vulnerable, and occasionally angry, as we heard in the rocker “Candidate,” which Jade dedicated to the women in the crowd who feel the same: “If you want somebody to judge, If you want somebody to blame, if you want somebody to hate, I’m a great candidate.”

As the set wound down, Jade brought tourmate Lucky Kilmartin onstage to join her on a breathtaking cover of Radiohead’s “Black Star” — “It’s not my song,” she said, “but I absolutely adore the lyrics.”

Listen to Jade Bird’s Free at Noon concert and see photos below; for past performances, visit our Free at Noon archives.

Setlist
Uh Huh
Now Is The Time
Headstart
Candidate
Different Kinds Of Light
Blackstar
Prototype