Last night I saw Echo and the Bunnymen, a band who, every ten years or so, puts out a song that I absolutely adore, but I've never bought an album – or seen them live.
To be perfectly honest I wasn't looking forward to seeing them that much, especially after my mate Arlie made jokes about them being over with by 9pm – ‘those poor old fellas needing to be in bed on time.....’
This was not improved by the fact that I was one of the youngest ones there; lots of middle aged rock-punks having teased up what was left of their tortured hair and big black boots the likes of which I haven't seen for years!
WEEEEEEEEEEEEEELL!!!!!!
Both myself and Master Chandler were WRONG!!! It has been such a long, long, long time since I have been so moved by a group of musicians.
Ian McCulloch is the coolest of the cool …chain smoking, flicking the butts back and booting them off like a delinquent teenager 30 years ago!!
NOBODY does ciggie tricks anymore!!!!
Then there was the Music!!
Nicky A said the guitars sang and that is the only way to describe it.
MELODIES - gorgeous layers of sound that literally left me gasping in surprise! Three Jedi masters of their craft!
But let's not leave out the ROCK factor. Drums, rhythms, keyboards (which I'm not usually a huge fan off), but here they purely added another dimension to songs already lush and oozing with life.
Great HUGE songs that had the crowd either jumping around or groaning with delight…there was almost even a mosh pit for a minute!
But back to Mr McCulloch, his voice - dark, deep, haunting, soaring lovely shivers down your spine…and besides that he simply oozed Rock God-ness!!!
While it is completely ridiculous to compare last night's gig with Tool's last week, (I shall, they are both so different but indicative of old v new and new is not always better!), all I can say is that I came out of The Metro with a grin from ear to ear and a feeling of complete musical satisfaction, while I left the Entertainment Centre very impressed and a wee bit confused....(wasn’t all them funny pills was it Belly?-Ed)
The moral of the story is - IF YOU EVER GET THE CHANCE TO SEE Echo and The Bunnymen, DOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS: They did an awesome cover of The Doors song Roadhouse Blues!
Marie Bell - redbackrock.com
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