This may well be the weirdest gig I've ever been to. We missed the first few songs, because we had issues with guest-listing, but the staff were lovely and sorted it for us as quickly as they could.
Oran Mor is a cracking venue. Its small enough to be intimate but big enough that you don't have to be pressed up against other sweaty people to get a decent view. In fact, we stood right at the back and saw the stage perfectly, and the sound was great. Bravo, says I. I like Brett Anderson, albeit I had heard very little of him, aside from a few bits of solo work. In all honestly, mostly I know him from his Suede days.
So we get in, and Brett's playing the piano, with a very attractive brunette on the cello. The gig was in two halves, and the first half was possibly one of the most boring hours or so of music I have ever had to listen to. It was just awful. I was getting increasingly frustrated, because he's got an AMAZING voice. Turning to the guy I was with, I said 'why doesn’t he DO something with it??' He alternated between piano and guitar, and I had hoped that maybe he'd be better on guitar but again, it was just so samey. The music was lovely, the lyrics were fantastic, but I just couldn’t distinguish any difference between the songs. Even Brett's debut single
Love is Dead did very little for me. By this point, I really wanted to leave. The people around me seemed to be enjoying themselves, but it just wasn’t my cup of tea.
For all of my wishing I was somewhere else, the second half of this performance was so much better. Hurrah! He finally started going hell for leather. Strumming the guitar forcefully, he began to really use his voice. That voice. At times almost shouting. This was more like it. And the lyrics to these songs weren't just gorgeous, they really struck a chord with me. He started off with
Europe Is Our Playground, which is a truly beautiful song. I've just re-listened to it, and I can definitely see it growing on me. Next up was Suede song,
Oceans. Again, I was in love. It's a song about a marriage gone stale, the lyrics are really simple, but his voice conveys such emotional tragedy so well. More Suede followed, and in particular as Anderson performed
Saturday Night, I'll admit to shedding a small nostalgic tear. This half was so much more involving. The crowd really got into it and were singing along. Anderson had won through and by now everyone was enjoying the set, and I was caught up in the wave of excitement and euphoria in the venue and I began to get enveloped in the music and the atmosphere.
Yet for all of that, I was left feeling confused by the whole experience. To give Brett his due, he played for about two hours, which is long enough for the most ardent of fans who wanted him to stay playing. It also ensured a huge range of his music was performed this catered to anyone and everyone in the audience. However, I don't think I would go back to see Brett Anderson live as I could not get past the first half of this gig. The part that I had found dull and lacking. What I did take from this performance is an intention to search out the songs that I enjoyed live and no doubt fall in love with their studio sound. It seems that maybe his solo offerings aren't so much my cup of tea as the songs he performed with Suede, but the fans in the crowd were caught up in this show, so maybe I'm just picky.
To keep up with news of Brett Anderson, his website can be found
here.
