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TORONTO - Before Thursday night, enchanting British singer-songwriter Beth Orton hadn't played in Toronto since 2002.
Someone in the crowd at The Carlu reminded her of that fact as her show was set to begin, to which Orton shot back: "I know, I know. But I'm back and I ain't going no f---in' where."
She might sing poetic lyrics over melancholy, folk-trip-hop sounds with her beautiful, raspy voice, but Orton talks like a truck driver.
That, of course, only adds to her charm.
Her return to Toronto came on the heels of her well-received latest album, Comfort Of Strangers, and that disc was almost entirely represented during her hour-and-40-minute set, despite the audience's persistent shout-outs for older hits from her decade-long career.
(She later acquiesed during her second and final encore with Stolen Car, Paris Train and She Cries Your Name featuring just her on acoustic guitar.)
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Orton opened her concert with the new song Absinythe, and other new standouts included Rectify, Conceived, Safe In Your Arms, Shopping Trolley, Heart Of Soul, Feral, Countenance, Pieces Of Sky, A Place Aside and the CD's title track.
She even returned for her first encore with a rare turn on the piano to play the Comfort tune Worms.
Her older material sounded good too, including Sweetest Decline, Sugar Boy, This One's Gonna Bruise and Pass In Time -- the latter with opening act Willy Mason on mandolin.
And when Mason loudly broke a guitar string right after a particularly poignant lyrical moment in Pass In Time -- "My mother told me just before she died..." -- Orton ad-libbed in mock outrage: "She didn't say that!"
The one strike against the lovely, low-key Orton is that she isn't a particularly exciting live performer, but her voice is so emotional and riveting and her in-between-song demeanour is so engaging that you can't help but watch her.
And she really came alive whenever she was backed by the full sound of her tight four-piece band -- with a special shout-out to pianist Sean Read.
The lighting guy also seemed to finally figure out the set-up. The four hanging strings of red lights overhead and waterfall of white lights behind Orton suddenly sprang alive during the show's better second half.