After the excitement of the Reading Festival, the inevitable come down. What better way to fill the void then with a dark night of the soul with Mr Mark Lanegan? As he strides through the foyer before the gig, tall and dressed in black, drawling a ‘How you doing?’ to the knowing smiles and welcoming nods, his presence reaches out before him.
When ‘Bubblegum’ was reviewed by Tim on this site he compared Mark Lanegan to the king and prince of tortured souls Johnny Cash and Nick Cave. At first we scoffed at such an elevation but after living with the album over the last month or so we are beginning to see what he means. A creeping, claustrophobic masterpiece that deserves each and every one of the ten stars it was given on W&H.
Whilst the album is all about that voice, live is definitely about the Mark Lanegan band. He has surrounded himself with musicians who are not content to run through the motions but rather bring new interpretations at each turn. The album is stripped down and lean but live it’s beefy and full. The band, feature two guitarists, drums, bass and a female foil to Lanegan's dark brooding. There’s also a fine collection of hardcore tattoos sprinkled liberally throughout the collective.
Lanegan sets himself up in the middle of the stage, hanging off his microphone and only moving to check the set list. His lack of movement is more than made up for when he opens his mouth and let’s that voice go to work. A voice that seems to contain all the years of abuse, travel and raw experience. He’s been there so you don’t have to and for that we should be grateful. The tales he brings back speak of heavy narcotic abuse, much soul searching and not a little regret. ‘One hundred Days’ is mesmerising in it’s delivery, ‘When Your Number Isn’t Up’ stops us dead in our tracks, transfixed by this man baring his soul on stage. ‘Hit the City’ shows off the male and female vocal dynamic beautifully but it’s when the band are let loose on the full on rock material that the night takes a turn for the thrilling.
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‘Sideways in Reverse’ and ‘Death Valley Blues’ are roaring beasts of songs and it’s obvious that the band are revelling in playing with such fierce material. The guitarists trade leads whilst the drummer and bass guitarist drive it on harder and harder. As Lanegan proved with his old band Screaming Trees and particularly with Queens of the Stone Age his voice lends itself to churning hard rock. My only previous experience of Mark Lanagan live was when seeing the Queens on several occasions and his contribution was always one of the highlights. How we would of loved to have heard ‘Hanging Tree’ tonight.
Instead we get a clunking ‘Methamphetamine Blues’ bringing the main set to a close tonight before the band return for a four song encore. The whole of the encore is drawn from pre ‘Bubblegum’ sources and the final song see’s Lanegan walking off to rapturous applause half way through and leave his band to finally take centre stage and bring it home in style. They finish with a blistering rock wig out that see’s them seemingly trying to outsprint one another for the line. Now that’s the way to work through your come down.
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