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Photos and review by Lou Montesano

There was a lot of glitter in the house as Grace Potter took the stage at New York’s Beacon Theatre. Dressed in shimmering gold sequins, Ms. Potter lit up the room, but so did her faithful fans. Many women in the audience were equally glamorous in sparkling outfits inspired by the statuesque and soulful performer they had come to see.

A Grace Potter show is always a high-energy affair. Kicking things off with “Daylight,” the title track from her 2019 album, Potter played her Gibson Flying V guitar before shifting between acoustic guitar and keyboards throughout the evening. There’s some Tina Turner in her dance moves and a bit of Janis Joplin in the way she delivers a song, but Potter is very much her own artist. In addition to being a singer, songwriter and musician, her music spans rock, soul, blues, country and gospel. Her cover of the Etta James classic “I’d Rather Go Blind” was one of the evening’s standouts. From the first Nocturnals album, Potter sang “Medicine” but with an entirely different feel than the recorded version — this one, she said, more the way it was originally written with Tom Waits.

It took a few songs to get the crowd up on its feet, but once they were up there was no sitting back down. The churchlike vibe alternated with raw power and, yes, plenty of sexuality. A prime example was the back-to-back performance of “Nothing But The Water, I and II” — the first part pure gospel and the second a rocking closer to end the set. The band returned for a series of encores that included “Shout It Out,” Fleetwood Mac’s “Gold Dust Woman” and Potter’s signature “Paris (Ooh La La).”

Grace Potter has been on tour since the beginning of the year. The New York show wrapped up her East Coast dates and she will now be working her way across the country through the end of March. She’s a whirlwind, so catch her if you can.

—Lou Montesano