ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN / FREEMAKER Edinburgh, Queen's Hall - Wednesday 31st May 2006 I'll confess I thought more than twice about going to this show after October's Barrowlands disappointment. However after giving given the Bunnymen a bit of a kicking last time out, I'm pleased to report that last night's show in Edinburgh was a welcome return to form. Not perhaps a surprise since I’ve seen maybe just 2 or 3 average Bunnymen gigs in 25 years. The show was a reminder just how great a live band the Bunnymen are (no-one surely needs reminding of how great the back catalogue is). Having said that some of the underlying problems from last time remain (indeed seem intractable) but I'll come to those later because I'd much rather start with the positives.
Performance wise this was a far more consistent shown than Glasgow - the uneven nature of the set that night wasn't repeated. In spirit this was far more akin to the Garage show in 2002 (still probably the best post-reformation show I've seen) and the 25th anniversary tour. Essentially that meant that classics were superb and the Bunnymen-lite songs pulled their weight giving the whole set a more rounded feel compared to last time. So the likes of 'Never Stop' fizzed energetically, the guitars on 'In The Margins' were pushed up whilst even 'Lips Like Sugar' had grown some balls. In a nutshell there was more Will Sergeant. The pacing of the set also seemed superior to last time although in reality the set was actually structurally similarly in both shows. The better performances and the return of 'Over The Wall' near the end of the main set probably just created that illusion. Another big plus performance wise was McCulloch himself. Last night he seemed far more focussed and on the ball and it helped a lot that he actually bothered to sing all the words this time. Visually he spent most of the time hunched round his mic but compared to some of the antics last time that's perhaps no bad thing. Highlights? Plenty - the given - 'All That Jazz', 'Killing Moon', 'The Cutter', most of 'Villiers Terrace' and an absolutely immense 'Over The Wall' and the not so expected - 'Never Stop' and 'Seven Seas'. In comparison, on this occasion, the negatives were fairly minor. The continuing desecration of 'Villiers Terrace' remains a bone of contention in this household although it was less jarring in the midst of a great show. And for the second consecutive time 'Going Up' was a huge disappointment. Whilst that might have been down to the initially muddy sound perhaps retiral is the right option for this old warhorse.
The biggest grumble however remains the choice of songs. By virtue of the verve with which most of the songs were played, they get away with it. But it's beyond argument that the setlist was eminently predictable, even if the main set was not, as I initially thought, identical to last time out. But the only surprises come in the second encore when they play a bona fide cover, ('Waiting For My Man') and then, after an on stage debate over what should follow, 'Rescue'. Dropping the scheduled 'Ocean Rain' was perhaps a reflection of the band's reaction to a very positive audience but it's not exactly ground-breaking. In fact, if anything, the proportion of older material is increasing again as the Siberian content was chopped by 25% through the omission of 'Of A Life'. So the unavoidable conclusion is that, whilst performance wise October was a blip, there is nothing here to suggest that McCulloch and Sergeant are about to become more adventurous in the 21st Century. Which is a real pity. See what they COULD play in the right hand column. Finally a quick word about support Freemaker. Far from revolutionary, their brand of accessible rock was nonetheless an enjoyable opening to the show. But you can't help feel that they would have had a greater chance of success a few years ago.
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