But
before Shuffling can commence this weekend, there’s another one to get out of
the way, and a quite significant one; US alt-rock psych/ noise rabble turned
wide-eyed pioneering Americana dreamers Mercury Rev, back on these shores after
a relatively short break of less than 2 years. More intriguingly, this time
they’re accompanied by The Royal Northern Sinfonia, a Gateshead-based chamber
orchestra, to provide an extra “live” dimension to the Rev’s widescreen and
epic sound sculptures. The missing dimension, perhaps? Originally scheduled for
The Colston Hall as well, where the ornate surroundings of the main hall and
its’ favourable acoustics would augment the overall experience, Beef and I
acted quickly and secured rear stalls tix for an enticing and intriguing event,
which initially I also believed would be a run-through of their defining epic
1998 work “Deserters Songs” – it wasn’t, so not sure why I got that impression,
but still…
So
a couple of bumps in the road were due, the first being that the gig was moved
to the O2 Academy at late notice, due to some debris having fallen from the
Colston Hall ceiling. A familiar venue, this, but perhaps one less suitable for
this particular performance? We nonetheless headed down and parked unimpeded on
Trenchard level 8, hitting the venue at 10 to 8. Very poorly attended early
doors, and with support Charlie Coxedge midway through his set. Seemingly in
keeping with recent Rev supports, he was absolute dreck, playing one note riffs
then feeding them through tape loop overlays. I bloody hate that at the best of
times, but this was worse, as his “material” was unstructured, utterly
pointless guitar noodling. Sorry mate, it’s not “haunting” or “ethereal”, it
just sounded like 15 minutes of tuning up. Charlie was clearly a competent
musician, but tonight he was just wasting his – and the audiences – time.
Anyway,
from the ridiculous to the utterly sublime, as the lights darkened and the c.
20 piece Sinfonia Orchestra took the slightly cramped stage just before 8.30,
playing a string-led piece to set a mournful, elegiac mood, then Mercury Rev
sloped quietly onstage, almost respectfully, to the refrain from “The Dark Is
Rising”, thereafter easing into a warm and evocative opener “Central Park”. The
raffish, 19th Century gentleman rogue Jonathan Donahue, resplendent
in snowy stubble, Dickensian cap and necktie, then introduced the orchestra,
then the band and finally, “the grand vizier of all things ethereal, Simon
Raymonde!” In fact, the former Cocteau Twin and Bella Union boss (who, with cap
and gaudy jacket in place, I thought resembled Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen!) was
as integral to tonight’s show as the orchestra and the Rev themselves, not only
with his shimmering guitar work, but also with stories of his father, the
former composer and actor Ivor Raymonde, who’d apparently not only been
responsible for the string arrangements on some Walker Brothers hits (which
elicited a sharp intake of breath from this Scott Walker devotee!), but also
had a walk-on part on “Hancock’s Half Hour”!
Nonetheless,
the music was the key element of the performance, as ever for me, and despite
some uneven and occasionally frankly baffling song selections, the orchestral
treatment really provided the hoped-for extra elements to the material. “Tonite
It Shows” was gorgeous and dramatic in equal measure, the opening section to
“Endlessly” was beautiful, the strings and voice only arrangement giving it a
gossamer delicacy, and “Holes” (which also featured guest guitarist Adrian
Utley from Portishead) was magnificent, huge and transcendent, and almost my highlight of the night. These
almost made up for a throwaway “I Wish I Never Loved You”, an Ivor
Raymonde-composed 60’s Helen Shapiro number sung tonight by Holly Macve (who
we’d established last time out with the Rev that I’m not a fan of), and a
Sinfonia-free, VU-esque droney and somewhat inexplicable cover of The Flaming
Lips early (i.e. before they got good) “There You Are”
However,
once again Donahue excelled; remarking, “the urge to conduct is overwhelming!”
but then admitting, “I didn’t know that the waving arms had some musical
meaning!” he was a voluble presence throughout, chatty and contented, joining
in the audience applause for each number, and of course augmenting them perfectly
with his haunting, eerie soprano voice. The bouncy refrain into the crescendo
choral structure of “Opus 40” then led into an astonishing reading of “When You
Wish Upon A Star”, which prompted me to film a segment on my phone for my
Disney fan daughter. Donahue joked afterwards, “I could see it in your eyes –
are you really going there? But we’re not going
there, we’ve been there all along!” also making the point that their “Big
Music” always required, even deserved
an orchestral arrangement, commenting “[Grasshopper and I] didn’t want Sid
Vicious on bass in the band – we were looking forward to an oboe!” Inevitably,
therefore, the night closed out with “The Dark Is Rising”, Mercury Rev’s high
watermark and their one song most in need of an orchestral accompaniment. Stark
and lovely, the refrains swooped like swarms of delicate butterflies, before
again building to the almost palpable final crescendo, Donahue at this point
barging the Sinfonia conductor out of the way to conduct the orchestra with a
blue toy lightsabre. This was a quite magnificent way to end an overall very
worthy and, despite some imperfections, thoroughly enjoyable performance.
Had
a quick chat with a fellow punter, who’d previously commented on my blog,
whilst waiting for a set-list; then the final bump in the road, as we were
ushered away by a steward who’d been told no lists were being handed out
tonight. Bah! I had to content myself with a pic of the sound guy’s list, who
again wouldn’t part with it (personal notes? I call bullshit, me… grrrr).
Whatever, this was still another fine – and early – night out with the Rev;
still (occasionally) scraping the heavens after all these years!
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