Patrick Watson, La Force - EartH - Hackney, London - Dec. 10, '18

La Force
In a satin pink dress and otherwise just an electric guitar Ariel took to the stage a little later than first anticipated. Regardless the audience in the cold, old hall were captive from the get go. She played a few songs from her first solo release that's only weeks old before swapping to the cigar box for a few. Her voice is strong and distinct, pushing it to far registers at times, while handling that guitar well and varying the pre-recorded beats, one sounding like a club beat before she started into it. Inviting Little Scream to meld her vocals they sang one together which had a few moments where I worried the harmonies would go off the rails but in the end was a highlight as the crowd clapped them out. The true highlight was rightfully saved for the next song that would also be the last. "To prove that I have friends" a guitarist named Joe (from Patrick's band) came to layer onto the throbbing back beats and Ariel's own guitar while she sang us an anthem for our revolution, probably the strongest of the night and a tune akin to her work with AroarA.

Patrick Watson
Patrick Watson is in that upper echelon of performers that truly transcends with each show, giving you an ethereal experience that takes you out of the concert hall and into a new world. Taking to the stage in darkness the sound started before anything could be seen and began to not just surround but envelope us all. Along with his band of five - drums, guitars, bass, synthesizers, and Ariel's vocals  - they built up the songs from a hush until they filled your soul via your eardrums. Through fog and an assortment of ever-changing lighting, including a laser show and these lovely old-fashioned, oversized bulbs on stands with translucent mirrors that slowly twirled around them, you could just make out the variety of ways that they produced the magic. Patrick, from under a mass of hair, pumped his hands and giggled like a madman but they say there is a fine line between genius and mad and he seems to tiptoe it. He used everything from piano, to effect pedals and boards to a megaphone and even just shouting into the audience. Speaking of the audience, he also used us as an accomplished conductor would, milking everything out of our collective voices (once by encouraging us to sing like we were really drunk!), but we were willing participants throughout. Even without many 'hits' - they played Adventures in Your Own Backward but not any of Luscious Life, Big Bird in a Small Cage, or Beijing - it was still a compelling set.
Special moments came as the band huddled around one mic, family style, during the set as well as on absolute stunner, Into Giants, that opened the encore. The french horn also ended up playing out in the audience at one point of it too. This was around the time that it was made known that their drummer, Robbie Kuster, was playing his final show with the band after 20 years and the audience's roared approval carried on and on, multiple times continuing beyond when Patrick was about to introduce the next song, as Robbie stood proudly with a tambourine raised above his head. Somehow they followed this up with a beautiful solo piano tune from Patrick where he could really showcase throwing that incredible voice of his around, before they all returned for one last finale song. I realise this review doesn't do it justice and encourage you to go see it for yourself as there is new music in the pipeline for 2019!

Dan Mangan, Laura Gibson - Southbank Centre, London - Nov. 13, 2018

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.

Chilly Gonzales - Southbank Centre (London, England) - Nov 7/15

Chilly brought his bathrobe, along with his piano, pop sensibility and humour to the large, full Southbank Royal Festival Theatre in London on Saturday evening. Emerging alongside the Kaiser Quartet they exhibited some instrumental cuts from their Chambers album together before Chilly broke the vocal silence and said good evening. From there it was a mix of music, comedy and showing off his 'musical genius' in a variety of ways. This included giving us examples of arpeggios in popular music throughout the times (and what certain songs would sound like without them) as well as conducting his quartet from different perspectives - as a producer using them as a sampler, or as a drum machine. Naturally he included Sample This too. He did rap, such as Supervillain Music and the cleaned up version of The Grudge and as an encore an amalgam of Self Portrait and his own rebuttal (Not) A Musical Genius from stood atop the piano bench. A particular moment of levity came during one of the more serious instrumentals featuring the quartet where from the shadows a man emerged and walked purposefully to the drum kit, stretched, and then delivered one thundering two-handed beat before immediately retreating the way he had come. (The drummer later was made to dance which brought on an awkward moment of forced audience participation that we won't speak of.) It wasn't just the Chilly show though - at one point he took a seat off to the side and instructed his quartet to "entertain me" which they did; payback for the song or two that he did solo while the lights went out on the Kaisers. One instrumental was performed entirely in the dark, leaving us to visualise it ourselves without the newly deprived sense. Plus there was a unique world premier as a writing partner of Chilly's took a mic to centre stage where he rambled about a hotel room with a piano and then sang three somewhat ridiculous songs about the things that may have happened in that room. It was interesting but not the strongest part of the show. Knight Moves, two standing ovations, and one encore later (but conspicuously no bongos) the two hour spectacle came to a satisfying close with the patrons left to gush about the entertainment that was had.