Dan entered the hall to a lot of whoops, trailed by the same three band members that had accompanied Laura as this was a shared band tour for these North American co-headliners. Starting off with new album opener, Lynchpin, and Lay Low, I assumed it was going to be the More or Less show which would make sense seeing as it just dropped however the next couple songs dispelled that notion immediately. Wanting to get the longtime fans on board right away he did the mighty Road Regrets followed by Pine for Cedars. After belting it out on Regrets he admitted just how relieved he was to be able to sing again at full volume after losing his voice in Hamburg right at the start of the tour and only now regaining it in full.
There was a return to the latest with Cold in the Summer which unfortunately was not any extra special live - wouldn't have minded the equally mellow Fool for Waiting instead. Just Fear was next introduced by the tale of writing this while holding his second born in the immediate wake of Trumpy's election, as evidenced by the lyrics. Dismissing the band, who he had reintroduced - the males as old friends and the female as a new one - it became the Dan Mangan show for a few songs. This is quite a departure from the last album and tour circuit where he made a point of naming Blacksmith and calling out their importance to the songwriting process in interviews. He's singing a different tune this time around - metaphorically and literally. More or Less is at first blush a return to his folkier singer songwriter roots although there is definitely maturity and evolution in the songs which had made it another personal fast favourite. And the first fave of the favourite is Peaks and Valleys which he played next. Due to its density on record for some reason I was surprised to see it played just as him and his guitar but it was oh so thick, regardless, with a shout out to the real life Steve and Sally who were in the room (names changed slightly) and who saved his life at Glastonbury with a middle of the night papercup of tea.
Next up he opened the set up to suggestions and got lots tossed at him, selecting Mouthpiece first, much to the chagrin of the vocal duo behind us. This was solid, still by himself, though my shout was for Jeopardy. Next was Basket which I don't think anyone could be disappointed in - even having seen it umpteen times before it's still such a powerful piece of music.
Returning to a four piece he introduced the next song as one we could sing along to and sure enough it was his signature piece, Robots. Explaining that the robots are essentially the assholes he encouraged us to give them some vocal love. It was fun as usual but then I was gutted to see them pack up and walk off. What? We just got started!
Alas after mere moments he returned saying "not much suspense there, was there?" Beckoning Laura back into the stage with just a guitar I thought they might duet on Indie Queens but they went with his more recent Robyn cover, Hang With Me. I wouldn't say they were the perfect couple but it was enjoyable nonetheless. That can't be it though, can it? Nope. Laura stayed and the band returned and played quietly in the background while Dan climbed onto a seat in the front, unfortunately without a spotlight, and led our uhh-uhhhs during his beautiful early song from before he was famous, So Much For Everyone. Lovely, lovely.
It did feel an altogether too short set after having not seen him in so many years but it was an hour; sixty minutes of magic.
Laura Gibson
Only minutes after the listed time of 7:30pm Laura took the stage accompanied by an electric guitar player, drummer and female violinist. Together they played a couple of tunes before Laura stopped to have a chat with us. She was charismatic in wishing her patch cable goodbye after all the years, the apparent culprit for a dead set of pedals, and then telling us about her experiences being interviewed around Europe. Apparently the title of her new album, Goners, threw a lot of interviewers off with one asking about her new album 'The Condemned' before introducing the title track as Goners (rhymes with stoners). She would usually record some backing sounds quietly into her looper before setting off on the track and a few times it took a minute of things sounding a little like a cacophony before it all lined up as melodic. The album is quite strong and fared well live, with older tracks also performing strongly. As a 2 for 1 co-headlining with Dan this was a lovely treat.
