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Live Review
by SaschaS
17-6-2004
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More on: The Divine Comedy
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| The Divine Comedy: an interior tea eve |
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Live: The Divine Comedy
Bloomsbury Theatre, London
Wednesday, June 16, 2004
The Divine Comedy: a Bloosmaday eve in Bloomsbury
How many instruments does it take to make great music? It can be argued that, with a right idea, it takes - none, namely - you can deliver it acappella. Well, in The Divine Comedy’s case it takes only three, and the fairly unusual ones: alongside Neil Hannan’s guitar, there is a piano and violoncello; the latter also doubles as an assorted mini-wind instrumentalist. The divine evening starts with a simple walk on.
The stage is bare bar the instruments, lighting is static, nothing much happens bar - the most important thing - the songs. Neil Hannon, dressed in a suit, is an anti-thesis to a pop star, but the songs he writes are also an antidote to the powdered starlettes outta there. Launching with the title song of the current album, and new single, ‘Absent Friends’, we embark on an odyssey across the emotional seas of Bloomsday… [Today being a centenary of the day the plot of James Joyce’s ‘Ulysses’ depicts. Well, anyway…]
Tentative audience is reluctant to enter a dialogue he instantly offers but loosen up as the show progresses. This feels less like a pop concert and more like a chamber music for a round of hangers-on. He repartee between songs are acerbic remarks on the issues of the day, from EU [he lives in Ireland and thus is paid in Euros] to the thing everyone is talking about, that small kick-about in Portugal.
Some earlier hits are reworked by being slowed down to fit the format and the auteur’s current mindset: ‘Generation Sex’, ‘Becoming More Like Alfie’, ‘National Express’… Still, the newer tracks appear to cause the same emotional stir the older do which is a good sign as so many other contenders start to fade into nostalgia acts PDQ.
Mr Hannon is one of the finest songwriters this country has produced in a while: astute, observant, witty, always involving; impeccable stylist, elegant performer and a charming fellow, all making him share more with Sir Noel Coward than the today’s overcrowded merchants of pop chants. If he hasn’t received an Ivor Novello Award then its committee should be sued for creative negligence by acknowledging the fakers that The Darkness are.
Long may the Guardian of Suave melodies reign.
SaschaS
17-6-2004
The Divine Comedy's album 'Absent Friends' is available now on
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