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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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by Nick Morgan
THE HANDSOME FAMILY
The 02 Academy Islington, London
May
26th 2009
It’s
a sadly short review for the
Handsome family, aka Brett and Rennie
Sparks. Not that I blame them. Sure enough, Brett
did seem to have over-indulged in the dreadful
fizzy lager that masquerades as beer at so many
London venues, but as we were assured from the
stage, this was only to counteract his medication. |
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| As
he suffers from regular bouts of illness due to
bi-polar disorder this could well be heavy- duty
stuff. But like I said, it wasn’t the beer
that was the problem, nor the Handsome Family, whose
set majored on their new album, Honey Moon, a collection
of surprisingly gentle love songs to celebrate the
Sparks’ twenty years of marriage. However,
we did hear some darker material, being their murder
ballad-fuelled Gothic take on alt.country, for which
they are rightly celebrated. The narrative of the
songs was helped along by lyricist Rennie Sparks’
off-the-wall dialogue with the audience (or was
it with herself?), and occasionally with her husband,
who writes the music. But it was good stuff, with
only minor deviations into that dreadful, self-consciously
‘kooky’ territory occupied by many North
American performers. And, as anyone who is familiar
with his work will know, when Brett Sparks lets
go with his hugely powerful, deep and mournful country
voice, the effect was electric. And he produced
some very nice twangy guitar riffs too. So I can’t
fault any of this. Nor can I find anything but good
to say for the two intriguing support acts: the
spare and haunting Smoke
Fairies, who delivered a perfect and very simple
mix of English folk music and roots blues guitar
and Liz
Green. Green’s voice is an unlikely mixture
of Lancashire’s Grace Kelly and Tennessee’s
Bessie Smith; the effect, combined with lyrics with
a very high misery content sung over simple blues/swing
style guitar was compelling. As were her woodcut
illustrations which accompanied each song. |
| So
what’s the problem? Well, sad to say, it’s
the venue: the concrete box that is the 02 Academy
Islington. It has to be, at least in my opinion,
one of the least music- friendly venues in the city,
and as the Photographer will affirm, it certainly
doesn’t offer much for the vertically challenged.
There are really no decent sight lines, so unless
you choose to endure the very front of the crowd
there’s almost no hope of seeing a thing.
Unless, of course, you can get a spot on the balcony,
which for some reason (no doubt not enough profit
likely to be generated from the bar) was closed.
That leads you to stand towards the back, where
a succession of six-foot-three and very wide boys
block your vision like the moon occasionally does
the sun, and where you endure non-stop chatter and
noise from the bars echoing through the place more
effectively than the music. Maybe it all seems different
from the stage, but believe me, almost every experience
I’ve had in this place has been a disaster.
To be honest, had the Handsome Family not been on
our list for so long, I wouldn’t even have
booked tickets. So not for the first time, I’ve
vowed never to return, although I have no doubt
that we will. But my advice is simple. Do go and
see the Handsome Family, and the Smoke Fairies,
and Liz Green, but not at a dump like this. -
Nick Morgan (photographs by Kate) |
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| Listen:
The
Handsome Family on MySpace |
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the index of all reviews:
Nick's
Concert Reviews
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