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Live Review
by SashaS
6-3-2003
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| Tom McRae: no need waiting for... fans |
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Live: Tom McRae
Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Wednesday, March 5, 2003
Tom McRae is a spiritual vulcanizer
The world may be falling apart – war-preparation, transport that is on the level of a Third World country, C-charge, Reality TV (sic), NHS… shall I go on? – and the popular culture ignores it by flogging tonnes of tweeny-escapism. Pop stars and other artists can demonstrate against the Iraqi bombing but popular music has never been so cocooned, so divorced from real life…
This was even more emphasised at Tom McRae’s concert when he dared to address the issues that really matter on the streets, such as calling our dear PM, “An arsehole.” When so many ‘artisans’ skirt facing declaration by claiming not to know enough – what, whether you are pro or con killing innocent people for some clandestine motive? – McRae stood his ground, augmenting it with quick-wit, humour and songs that can only be tagged as – pop music of devastating elegance (‘old-skool standard).
Watching McRae – surrounded by another five players including a cellist and a bassist who doubled as a second keyboardist – is like observing a songwriting medium in action: he is only a vessel from which sounds are poured out. Sometime it is a flow of notes, sometime it is lumpier, often bittersweet but there are no boundaries, no barriers, no slavery to vogue and genres. Song is the boss, and in McRae’s hands, marshalled into a service that repairs punctured souls.
Despite a lyric stating “Life is great” and combo of a jolly rhythm and great topic of ‘The End Of The World News’, McRae is a ‘protest-singer’ opposing dullness, vacant posing and obsession with nostalgia. His words carry a message, communicate feelings, hit emo-centres regularly rather than randomly connecting with fans’ inner worlds. Melodious and multifarious tunes are altering with rocking and pensive, minimal instrumentation and complex arrangements accompany his vocal that is reverently listened to… (He commented on it, with some surprise.)
Songs such as ‘Street Light’ (there is something intrinsically trad-Brit about it), ‘Overthrown’, ‘Hidden Camera Show’, ‘You Cut Her Hair’, ‘Walking 2 Hawaii’, ‘Ghost Of A Shark’… make (this) one wonder why is David Gray not stripped off of all his success, sent to the Tower as a fake and McRae enthroned as the ‘King of…’ That’s the problem: his artistic expression is eclectic for easy marketing but has justly generated him precious standing among discerning music lovers.
Rain outside was trying to wash away sins of humanity but there is a whole continent of issues… Still, walking out I feel my faith in music as an artform has been restored, once again.
SashaS
6-3-2003
Tom McRae’s album ‘Just Like Blood’ is available now on db records/BMG
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