Dido and Philly fans have a Saturday night sing-a-long at Union Transfer

Dido | photo by Ellen Miller for WXPN | ellencm.com

British singer-songwriter Dido is back on the road with her new album Still on my Mind and she brought the show to the Union Transfer on Saturday night. Her longtime fans were eager to see her again, so much so that they began lining up on Spring Garden street at least three hours before doors opened. English-Italian singer songwriter, Jack Savoretti, who is on the road with Dido for a bit of the tour, opened up the night in Philadelphia. He also has a new album out this year called Singing to Strangers.

Savoretti intrigued the audience with his voice during his 30 minute opening set. He had a handful of his own fans there (some of whom wore his tour shirt purchased on a previous night) but also he managed to keep the longtime Dido fans interested. His set was calmer in the sense that he remained seated on a stool as he played, but musically it was full of emotion and energy, just the right mix needed to grab in a new listener. This was his first time in Philadelphia and at various points during the set I could hear people in the audience whispering to their friend about how nice his voice sounds.

After the stage was reset as fans eagerly waited, Dido finally took the stage. Actually the band took the stage to start things off and then Dido walked out as the audience let out loud cheers and put their phones in the air to begin documenting the night. She was all smiles as she played through her 20-song set list and had some funny bits of stage banter to interact with her fans between songs every now and then. This show in particular had the typical intimacy feel of a Union Transfer gig, but then production-wise felt almost like you were somewhere bigger such as The Fillmore. It makes sense as Dido is definitely “big” enough of as an artist to play a bigger venue, but since she was playing the Union Transfer it added that level of intimacy that bigger places don’t necessarily have. Having the combination of the two was wonderful.

The 20-song set list was made up of both old fan favorites and new songs off Dido’s album released this year. For some of the new songs she performed, the lyrics were displayed on the stage backdrop to help the audience sing-a-long the whole night, no matter what song she was doing. Her humor started coming started coming out early on when she asked “Who has had a holiday romance?” before jumping in to her song “Sand in my Shoes.” She was pleased that a handful people were not too shy to respond positively; supposedly when she asks the same question in other countries like Germany no one admits to it.

Dido quieted down for a couple songs midset, sitting down on the edge of stage to sing “Sitting on the Roof of the World,” then got a laugh out people as she introduced “See You When You’re Forty” by joking that it has been re-titled to “See You When You’re Ninety.” (Haha.) People were singing along with her the whole night but the real sing-a-longs came when she played “Thank You” and then again for “White Flag” when the fans were actually the ones to end the show by singing the last few lines all by themselves as Dido held the microphone out towards the audience.

Check out the full setlist and photo gallery from the show below.

Setlist
Hurricanes
Hell After This
Life for Rent
Hunter
No Freedom
Grafton Street
Sand in my Shoes
Give You Up
Thank You
Friends
Sitting on the Roof of the World
Quiet Times
Here With Me
See You When You’re 40
Mad Love
End of Night
Take You Home
Take My Hand

Encore:
Have to Stay
White Flag