30 Bido Lito! <strong>February</strong> <strong>2015</strong> Reviews You & I and Ruby still bending the minds of all in attendance. Any fans of krautrock artists such as Neu or Harmonia should already be familiar with Silver Apples, them being considered progenitors of the genre. Perhaps the younger members of the audience do not know quite how to react to some of the music, but each and every crowd member cannot help but be mesmerised. This is true psychedelia: beautiful, strange and captivating. bidolito.co.uk PETER GABRIEL Jennie Abrahamson Christopher Carr Echo Arena Open entering the cavernous Echo Arena, as someone who only has a cursory knowledge of PETER GABRIEL’s classics, I am filled with niggling, stadium-rock forebodings. This does not seem a likely venue for a road to Damascus experience. The Arena is pretty much full and there is a gentle but unmistakable buzz of anticipation generated by the predominantly middle-aged audience. My misgivings are not eased by a pre-show announcement: “This concert will be recorded from the soundboard; you can buy a copy at www...” etc, etc. Support act JENNIE ABRAHAMSON and Linnea Olsson perform songs of Nordic mysticism: tales of horses, lakes and snowfall. The combination of glockenspiel, cello and their airy, fragile voices provides the perfect musical setting for such musings. Abrahamson and Olsson remain to provide backing vocals and Gabriel outlines the concert format: an acoustic hor’s d’ouvre, a main course of new and familiar material, and, for dessert, his most commercially successful album, So, in its entirety. A gentle piano, bass and cello opens What Lies Ahead, and Gabriel’s voice is immediately both familiar and somehow comforting. This is a man who has been quietly producing cuttingedge recordings, video and live spectacle for over four decades, not to mention his championing of music from around the globe via Real World Records and WOMAD, and his dedicated contribution to humanitarian causes. Even to a self-confessed doubter his place in contemporary musical legend cannot be denied. And he is in fine voice, effortlessly sounding as he did on those aforementioned eighties hits. The lights in the house stay up during the first few numbers, which, without that twilight anonymity that aids the bonding of individual and performer, gives a slightly odd, exposed feel to the proceedings. However, it quickly becomes obvious that we are in the presence of some very fine musicians indeed and, fittingly for such a musical polymath, the acoustic section is varied: Come Talk To Me features David Sanctious’ swirling accordion, Shock The Monkey highlights David Rhodes’ acoustic riff, and, during the pianoled Family Snapshot, Gabriel’s plaintive tone perfectly articulates the song’s raw emotion. The house lights go down for the main crowd on their feet. Don’t Give Up, the muchanticipated Gabriel/Kate Bush tearjerker, sees course, only stark white light penetrating the darkness. Lights are mounted on several Jennie Abrahamson take centre stage to deliver hammer-headed booms, each one operated a poignant and sensitive interpretation of the by two technicians who push them around the Bush vocal. Gabriel provides a nod to earlier stage. The band’s utilitarian, black jumpsuits theatricality, temporarily exiting the stage, and the manual operation of the lighting suitcase in hand. The crowd are on their feet evoke an Orwellian dystopia as filmed by Fritz giving Abrahamson wild, “you nailed it”, acclaim. Lang, and Gabriel tackles issues of control, As with the main course, the So section authority, and alienation in songs such as continues to deliver a pleasingly varied set of Secret World, Darkness and No Self Control. If this all sounds very serious, Gabriel exhibits a dry wit. “This song is about God, sex and drugs,” he announces, prompting huge applause. “I’m of the hit. So kicks off the dessert with the pounding Red Rain, the stage drenched in red light and drummer Manu Katche making full use of his kit Peter Gabriel (Mike Sheerin / michaelsheerin.photoshelter.com) musical styles and emotional content, not just between songs but within them. Mercy Street sees Gabriel perform the entire song lying on his back, the encircling lighting booms gently glad to see there are fans of all three in the lowered above him as a haunting, ethereal vocal house.” The song in question, Why Don’t You sweeps over the crowd. Big Time delivers a funky Show Yourself, again uses piano and cello guitar sing-along before the lighting booms over a sparse bassline, with Gabriel’s spoken stand erect, like gallows, as the doom-laden riff vocal contrasting perfectly with Abrahamson of We Do What We’re Told threatens the rafters. and Olsson’s exquisite backing. There is also OK, this is very well performed rock music, and a playful visual element to the proceedings it is in an arena, but there is something about with Gabriel, Rhodes and bassist Tony Levin this performance that elevates it above its own spinning into a perfectly choreographed dance levels of technical excellence, an intelligence routine, like a prog Temptations, during Secret and humanity that shine through in the lyrics of World, and Gabriel skipping down Salisbury Gabriel’s songs and in his alternately plaintive Hill like a five-year-old during a joyful version and angry delivery. He ends a short encore with Biko, a song which tonight transcends its original focus on an individual to become a universal tribute to the oppressed and has the audience chanting along, to drive the song along. The next two songs are fists raised in solidarity. “As always,” concludes amongst Gabriel’s best known. Sledgehammer Gabriel, “what happens next is up to you”, and is delivered to rapturous applause and packs he walks off stage. A tour de force. a slinky bassline from Tony Levin that has the Glyn Akroyd
JULIAN COPE THU 5TH FEB RED AND BLUE LEGENDS FRI 6TH FEB SIMON AMSTELL 12TH-13TH FEB MARTINI LOUNGE SAT SSSSA SAAAAAT AAAT T 14TH FEB RUMER FRI 20TH FEB GRETCHEN PETERS SUN 29TH MAR DREAMING OF KATE THU 17TH APR KATHERINE RYYYYAN RYYY RYAN YYYAN THU 8TH MAY MAAAAAY AAAY AYYYY SHANKLEYS SHANKLY’S DREAM CAME TRUE FRI 15TH MAY MAAAAAY AAAY AYYYY LAU SAT SSSSA SAAAAAT AAAT T 16TH MAY AAAY AYYYY AAAAY MERSEY BEATLES SAT 23RD MAY CARA DILLON THU 21ST 26TH MAY NOV 08448884411 85 5 Hanover Street L1 3DZ WWW.EPSTEINLIVERPOOL.CO.UK @EpsteinTheatre facebook.com/EpsteinTheatre facebook.cooooom/EpsteinTheatre om/EpsteinTheatre
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