Echo & The Bunnymen -
Glasgow, Barrowlands
(Sunday, October 23rd 2005)
|
By any
other standards this was a decent gig, littered with superb moments. But,
after 27 years, surely the only way to judge the Bunnymen is against their
own standards. Having seen virtually all of band’s Glasgow shows going back
as far as the Apollo show in ’81 I have to confess that, by their own
benchmarks, this was something of a disappointment.
One of the
problems, of course, is that the Bunnymen’s relevance today seems limited.
At a time when a lot of young bands are plundering their heyday for
inspiration, recent records have done nothing to dispel the notion that
their best work lies more than 20 years in the past, maybe even closer to
25.
Whilst
the first 2 LPs are stone cold classics thereafter they lost something.
‘Porcupine’ was more than a little unfocussed and although ‘Ocean Rain’ was
far more like it, for me, it still fell short of the first 2 LPs. (Ocean
Rain was also the LP that introduced the concept of Bunnymen-lite, something
which has regrettably dominated every record McCulloch and Sergeant have
made as the Bunnymen since.) |
 |
The reality
is that none of the records issued since the 1997 reformation do justice to the
early legacy of the band. ‘Flowers’ perhaps came the closest but was sabotaged
by a stifling production. Perhaps tellingly nothing from the ‘Flowers’ era
survives in the current live set.
To be fair,
the band clearly recognise much of this themselves given that only 5 of the
songs played in Glasgow were lifted from the last 4 LPs (and 4 of these came
from new LP ‘Siberia’). However, looking even more closely, the set is dominated
by songs which predate the ‘Songs to Learn and Sing’ compilation– ‘Lips Like
Sugar’ and ‘Dancing Horses’ being the only exceptions.
None of this
though was a problem at the 2 other post reformation shows that I’ve seen.
Sergeant’s guitar playing remains as iconic as ever and the live shows, even
here, still seem like an antidote to the less challenging nature of the recent
Bunny records. McCulloch and Sergeant may seem happy to churn out similar
sounding records based on their idea of a rock classicism but the live shows
provide evidence that there is still some fire in the Bunny bellies.
 |
That,
however, isn’t quite enough this time. In terms of song choice, given that
it remains largely a conservative greatest hits set, they did manage to
change things around from the 25th anniversary tour to a decent
degree. However inevitably, given the almost perfect choices in November
2003, there was bound to be a dip in quality.
Despite my
reservations about the record, I’m glad that the best three tracks off
‘Siberia’ got an airing and indeed they hold their own pretty well against
most of the set. ‘Scissors In The Sand’ is their most convincing up tempo
track in many a year as it retains a lot of the band’s essence without
sacrificing anything at the altar of mid-Atlantic indie rock (I’m thinking
of the likes of ‘I Want to be There (When You Come)’, in case you’re
wondering). ‘Of A Life’ works pretty well too whilst ‘In the Margins’ may
survive the inevitable cull of ‘Siberia’ material on future tours.
Nonetheless you can’t help but feel that their inclusion is anything other
than a grudging promotion of the new record. |
Two of the
most regrettable omissions last time around, ‘All That Jazz’ and ‘With A Hip’,
made welcome returns but, by way of exchange, out went ‘Over The Wall’ and
‘Crocodiles’ along with less essential stuff like ‘Rust’ and ‘Seven Seas’ (the
latter for me the first official sighting of Bunnymen-lite back in 1984).
OK, there are
some grumblings in all of this but what was wrong with this gig?
First off, the
dichotomy between the early stuff and everything else was apparent to a degree
I’ve never felt before. The stuff off the first 2 LPs was mighty - ‘All That
Jazz’, ‘Show of Strength’, the first part of ‘Villiers Terrace’ were all good
examples of that with a slightly undercooked ‘Going Up’ the only exception. But
the later stuff was several notches below that level even though some of it was
well performed.
Part of the
problem, too, was Mac. For my money, he was overly bevvied and I could barely
make out anything he said between songs all night. I’ve also occasionally
thought that sometimes he thinks he can get by just by being on stage and this
was one of those shows. Whilst some people seem to like the singer allowing the
crowd to sing a few bars of ‘The Killing Moon’ without his accompaniment, I
never have. So to fail to sing about half the song as he did at the Barras
seemed like sheer laziness. Who would you rather hear sing that song – a few
hundred bevvied up Bunny-fans or Mac? I rest my case.
The arbitrary
chopping up of songs to incorporate elements of standards was also grating. I’ve
never really been a big fan of this longstanding Bunnymen tradition but in the
past, such as on the various versions of ‘Crocodiles’, it has been done with a
certain amount of respect for the integrity of the original song.
But in Glasgow
it really did seem to be Karaoke-alonga-Mac. What other band would split up one
of their standards (‘Nothing Lasts Forever’) to play virtually a complete
version of someone else’s song? And frankly whoever decided to mutilate
‘Villiers Terrace’ and incorporate a slice of ‘Roadhouse Blues’ deserves a hefty
boot up the backside.
The encores
too, at just three songs, were a bit brief. ‘Nothing Lasts Forever’ now seems to
be a fixture but is ‘Lips Like Sugar’, a decent pop song and no more, really
worthy of its place in the climax of the set? Not by my reckoning. ‘Ocean Rain’
is great as a set closer but it would surely have been even better had it come
after, say, a thundering ‘Over The Wall’.
The
over-reliance on the same old material though remains a major issue for me. It
may be what the fans want to hear but, for all that the recent stuff en masse
really doesn’t hold up against the older material, it’s extremely unsatisfying
that the guts of this set are no more about 2005 than the recent Pixies reunion
tours. I can’t help thinking that including the likes of ‘Evergreen’, ‘Supermellowman’,
‘Flowers’ and ‘Hide and Seek’ instead of some of the sacred cows would both
invigorate the set and illustrate that, actually, there are at
least some gems in the post reformation canon.
But the course
seems set and you can either choose to go with the flow - or not. Inevitably
then I return to my initial thoughts – by almost anyone else’s standards this
would have been a decent gig – but by the Bunnymen’s it fell short.
Setlist -
Going Up
With A Hip
Stormy Weather
Show of Strength
Bring on the Dancing Horses
The Disease
Scissors In The Sand
All That Jazz
The Back of Love
The Killing Moon
In The Margins
Never Stop
Villier's Terrace/Roadhouse Blues
Of A Life
Rescue
The Cutter
--------
Nothing Lasts Forever/Walk on the Wild Side
Lips Like Sugar
--------
Ocean Rain