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Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Gnarls Barclay - The Regent, Auckland - March 28

Danger Mouse is not just the most busy person in Music today, he is also one of the more subversive DJ whizz kids who's obsessive prowling into territory designed to make trouble produced the underground classic The Grey Album. Next, there was the joyful ludicrously uplifting little number with Gemini that defined something striking, a hook with a blast. Something extraordinary. The next time the Danger Mouse effect struck by suprise was this amazing voice singing "Crazy" - the voice of Gnarls Barclay and the grin that controls it played a magic and make this rap soul maistro a demonically success overnight megastar on an MC Hammer scale. In reality he is even larger than life. Bugling with extraordinary life and a huge personality, the best voice you could hear, and a show that was spectaularly artful. The singing was delivered with a professional ease underlying the sense of frustration he had with this quiet crowd.

Perhaps it was the sheer brilliant over awed the audience but I suspect a little seen phenomena made it difficult. The crowd went crazy for the support act - and it kind of burned with such a powerful energy that there was nowhere to go. The Rapture are far far too good to support anybody, so watch out touring artistes - they are dangerously brilliant. More on them later.

A string quartet flawlessly alternated introductory riffs in counterpoint to a fine guitar lead, very distinctive backing vocals and the dynamic duo - this extraordinary masterpiece producing machine was belting out their short catalog of great songs to a mute response. "You're here to party!" the exhortations were loud and the language of frustration was like watching a comic melt.

Another, and in my view the real problem with both bands, is that they were produced far to loudly for the venue. The reason is the sound desk is buried under the circle, so only gets a slice of the full volume of the sound. The reverberation in this grand dame old theatre is quite serve. By the time one's eardums have been destroyed by the opening act, the main act is far far too loud to hear much and the performer's sense of timing may get rushed as he peers into the murk. But this band had far too much class. He swore at the quiet crowd and roused them to instant loud cheering yelps but he felt like he was not connecting, perhaps, The crowd were overawed, perhaps. Intro-ing his great hit as the reason for all his wealth and his exuberant ego in listing out what was great about himself, well he will grow out of it. I would fogive this man for anything and he was funny.

Storming off the crowd soke up like a petulent child in the night and demanded and demanded an encore. Just enough tough love from a man who convinced the audience he loved each one of them, and he opened his encore set with a cover of Space Oddity by David Bowie, and the crowd warmed up. And it was a great cover.

Sometimes something new seems like something old. The comparisons with James Brown are obvious in a sense, but Gnarls Barclay was done absolutely no favours by the presentation. The venue would be well advised to change their sound setup so engineers can hear what they are producing. Accuracy of the intended art is far more important than excess volume that makes it impossible for punters to hear some of the best music ever made while their ears and future enjoyment of all music may be compromised.

Yes, some bands are head bangers, but Gnarls Barclay is virtuoso conterporary jazz blues soul act. Next time I would rather hear them in a concert chamber.

Windy City Struggers Spiegeltent broadcast

Strugglers play Auckland Festival, go live on radio - see Strugglers site News Page

Monday, March 19, 2007

Lior - at the Spiegeltent

Lior had just come from the World Music stage performing for a crowd 20,000 or so at WOMAD, and then to the Auckland Festival AK07 at The Famous Spiegeltent for a very intimate performance. One man with one guitar - well not quite, the guitar changed nearly every song. Lior quipped that his guitar collection had been shipped back to Australia at the beginning of the show. Lucky for Auckland, this was a joke, however his encore was a Hebrew hymn - unaccompanied.

His guitar was intricate and crisp. Songs that stood out were Bedouin Song, Blessed and Grey Ocean from his CD Autumn Flow, nominated for 3 Aria awards, and Sonya which may be part of his about to be recorded second CD release.

Lior's music is gentle folk songs with intricate melodies - his voice sometimes was reminiscent of Paul Simon in some, with qualities I have not heard since Cat Stevens and when he let it pour out in full voice it reminded of Jeff Buckley. He included a wonderful story about the only cover in his set by Nick Drake.

**** Stunning.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Review - One Million Dollars

One Million Dollars is an eleven piece "local soul collective" playing funky jazz with a Brazilian twist. Their only Spiegeltent show had a smallish audience, which was a pity, they deserved much, much more.

A few tricky moments at first as lead guitarist and singer Richard Setford coped with an evil sounding bad connection that cracked through two songs. But that did not phase anybody. The show included songs from their second album, Soup Kitchen, all performed with the backbone of Tom Atkinson's on-the-beat drum work, fully experienced by an increasingly mesmerized audience, as the front line brass all knelt. While Richard Setford's vocals were on the edge of sounding a little blues like.

Two trumpets, a trombone and a sax define clearly their sound with a resonance and perfect timing. An uplifting and engaging experience, had them dancing and wanting an encore that could not be due to festival scheduling.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

Jennifer Ward-Lealand - Falling in Love Again

at The Famous Spiegeltent, 14 March 2007.

In Falling in Love Again, Jennifer Ward-Lealand is an actor playing a role, the role is an extraordinary observation of the great Marlene Deitrich. An actor playing a role must become brilliant at what an audience understands about the subject. This requires Jennifer Ward-Lealand not just to be able to project being Marlene but she managed to sound convincingly enough that you could play in this fantasy world, the fully authentic Spiegeltent that Marlene herself graced in the 1930s.

This was not so much "art as imitation", interpretation or representation, but this spiritually extended the value of it's original, Jennifer Ward-Lealand was able to inhabit our idea of Marlene Dietrich and with perfect timing and voice, she performed great numbers including delightful versions of the show title song.

After which the audience gave her a standing ovation, before they left the art deco authenticity of The Famous Spiegeltent.

This was one of those spine tingling performances that holds the audience in a rapture where time becomes irrelevant. Ward-Lealand entered, stood in a great big white fur and jewels, still, and moved the audience, some, to tears.