Live Review: Mark Morton – Underworld

It’s very rare for me to slow down when attending a concert, however going to see Mark Mortons (Lamb of God) solo show at the Underworld was a nice divergence from my normal concert experience. Joined by Mark Morales (Sons of Texas) and Joe Harvatt (Hark) the trio played through a variety of songs from Mark’s 2019 album Anesthetic along with some acoustic covers of the likes of Black Sabbath, Pearl Jam, and Alice in Chains. Joining Mark on his intimate acoustic tour was Dave McPherson (InMe) and Mark’s long time friend Ben Jordan.

I imagine it’s very hard to open up an acoustic show, not having the protection of blasting instruments, however Ben Jordan did a great job. Ben really did set the mood for the evening, being very laid back and talkative, brushing off and joking when he made a few mistakes starting off a song. Ben did joke that he was on the bill due to “people being in the wrong facebook groups” and that’s why he doesn’t have the same metal look as the headliner, however Morton later revealed that the pair had grown up together.

Dave McPherson looked very comfortable on the stage, even taking off his shoes so he could feel the soft rug under his feet. However, this didn’t take any energy away from his performance as he bounced around on his chair. Be that as it may, Dave didn’t shy away from slowing it down to talk about his struggles with mental health, advising the crowd to talk to their friends or family if they are in a similar situation, before playing A Domestic Accident (A song about the aforementioned topic).

Morton, Morales, and Harvatt came out to a very warm applause from the audience that had gathered. After a little tuning about, Mark tells the audience that this has been a really special thing they’ve been doing over the past week, before playing Reveal. This was the first of six songs from Anesthetic that they had stripped back to play on this tour, together with several covers and songs from Morton and Morales upcoming EP Ether. Morales kept in his vocal range throughout and put his own style on each of the songs, while keeping them recognisable.

The group look very mellow and are very chatty, feeling like just a few friends on the stage jamming out. Even so Morton revealed that he’s fine when being on stage with his band but being in these small rooms doing intimate performances scares him.

Morton paid tribute to the late Chester Bennington before playing a faithful acoustic rendition of their co-written song Cross Off. Finishing up the night the trio played Planet Caravan telling us beforehand that Morton had told the crowd on the previous night of the tour (in Birmingham) that he was only going to play it just for them, laughing it off that they “fell for it”.