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Razzmatazz |
2004-12-17
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Two concerts this week. Wednesday was dedicated to the delectable
Twilight Singers. In very good form, and they seemed to be enjoying themselves immensely. The concert was in a small room somewhere round the back and upstairs. There were about 400 people there, but packed so tightly we were all dripping with sweat halfway through. Lots of AW t-shirts in the crowd as well. The set list didn't contain too many surprises, but the encore was pretty damn long and got kicked off by an incredibly sweet rendition of ABBA's "Dancing Queen". I swear, this guy just has the perfect knack for taking a song and making the cover into a work of art on its own.
After a good 90 minutes, they left the small stage completely doused in sweat.
And yesterday evening, it was Ed Harcourt's turn. I had seen him last year in Belgium at a regular concert. But for this gig, it seems it was just him and a friend playing trumpets and xylophone.
It was simply amazing. He was funny, inventive, brought a completely new approach to most of his songs with a minimum of instrumentation. He has an amazing voice to begin with, nobody whispers or sighs better than him. He got the small (150 people) audience to participate, teaching them parts of the chorus to sing along to. He brought a girl on stage because he needed backing vocals for one song, and he pulled it off too.
He went from guitar to piano during songs without dropping a single note, and he played for a good 100 minutes without breaking a sweat. About the only drawback was that he didn't play my favourite. He radiated energy all night long. It was the same sort of vibe and performance I expect Jeff Buckley was giving at Sin-é. Truly a privilege to have been a part of it. And completely different from his normal band shows, which are very good as well, but more typical in some way. This gig was quite special.