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Live Review
by SashaS
18-11-2001
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| Piano-man Ed Harcourt |
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Live: Ed Harcourt
Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Saturday, November 17, 2001
Ed Harcourt played first major show that kept bugging him on several levels
Tonight is a strange one and only later on we find out why. Ed Harcourt was visibly intimidated by the venue, few times ‘quoting’ Talking Heads in incredulous voice, ‘How did I get here?’, his stage patter was strained and disjointed, his performance patchy and setlist a bit too uneven and ropey. One doubts that Harcourt, dressed in a velvet suit and tie, will forget this night in a hurry.
Having seen him in a smaller hall and in a more relaxed mode, it was difficult to take him on this level although the stage-fronting fans appeared to ovate every little move he made. ‘Harcourt’s hardcore’ is there for this great piano-man, who does his guitaring bit as well as banjo-ing, with a musical language that is eclectic, often effusive and seldom laboured, but this show was short on power to convert any newcomers.
Starting lo-fi Ed built atmosphere ever so carefully that the real body and mind engaging songs were left for the very end. Of course his music demands intense listening but a little bit of pace-variety could hurt no-one. ‘Here Be Monsters’ is full of great songs with intriguing lyrics and imagery but a tad too serious, the same quality Harcourt sports onstage, that leads to miniscule monotony at times.
Aside the magnitude of SBE – his first gig in front of several thousand – it was the presence of his parents that seemed to restrain him from wholly immersing in the show. It might be argued that parents are the only people we never show our true selves to, but it seemed their attending almost paralysed Harcourt. That caused the major shortfall, the lack of a flow in the show; every song appeared to be a new beginning, another entity, rather than a continual delivery of killer tunes.
It wasn’t much help that few new songs were included, ‘Fireflies Take Flight’ and ‘Watching The Sun Come Up’, the latter intro’d as “Coming out in about a year’s time!’ Still, Harcourt did manage to hit the right mood-clef with the last bunch of songs, in particular ‘Beneath The Heart Of Darkness’ while ‘Shanghai’ kicked arse out of these time-honoured bricks to send us out with a bit of an uplift.
The feel of the evening was neither helped by back projections of works by Escher, Magritte and Bosch; not disputing their artistic geniuses, hippies claimed them first and Harcourt is a hippy as much as Cher is a babe!
Performing is a craft that requires mastering; Harcourt is on the right path but still has a long way to channelling his emotional makeup.
SashaS
18-11-2001
Ed Harcourt’s album ‘Be Here Monsters’ is out now on Heavenly/EMI
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