Just a couple of days after the controversy surrounding Mark Kozelek’s comments about a female journalist during the show at the Barbican in London, most of the pre gig chat in the car park prior to the doors opening, is what the heck was going to happen tonight, and which version of Mark Kozelek was going to turn up ?
Having been rescheduled from late last year when the band missed a connecting flight, and upgraded in size from the Brudenell, tonight's slightly surreal venue was the 800 seated capacity Irish Centre, best known as hosting Indoor League with Fred Trueman in the 70’s.
With no support, the latest 4 piece band and version of Sun Kil Moon took the stage promptly at 8.30, including the wonderful Neil Halstead on guitar, and the place fell silent….the tension was palpable as Kozelek took to the stage last, then quite carefully and deliberately rearranged his equipment, drink, towel, checked the tuning on his guitar, then approached the mic…with a whispered “hey folks”, they launched into Marietta, from his 2013 with Desertshore……wow ! We’re off…. So the song ended to rapturous applause, which was appreciated and thanked for, then the first chat with the audience about he hadn’t visited Leeds for 12 years, and it was nice, but “is it an over 55 year old community ?” , referring to the mainly balding, middle aged men audience, but said with a smile….He was joking folks ! He knows how to joke!
One thing to mention was that the entire show was electric, and there wasn’t an acoustic guitar used all night, so the songs were ever so slightly rearranged from the album versions, and in some cases for the better, including songs from latest album Universal Themes which your reviewer is still bitterly disappointed with..Quality not quantity Mr Kozelek please.
After the wonderful Carissa from 2014’s Benji album (“my masterpiece”…ironically stated, but it is), the first surprise of the evening was sprung on us when Justin Broadrick arrived on stage, thankfully not to play Napalm Death “songs” but to accompany Kozelek on Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes. Then quickly followed THE surprise of the evening, when following joking with Broadrick about now playing I Got You Babe, a young girl from the audience shouted out "play it" so quick as a flash, she was invited up on stage and they sang the duet…Go on Uncut - report on that…
So back to serious stuff, and the gruelling The Possum and Ali/Spinks 2 from the new album were endured before the beautiful He Always Felt Like Dancing from him album with Jimmy Lavelle from the Album Leaf was played. Fabulous.
4 more songs were interspersed with moans about his age, how tiring some were to play, how Halstead never puts on weight, how lovely the audience were and how hot it was, and the 2 hour mark had been reached.
I Can’t Live Without My Mother’s Love and Caroline were the 2 encores, and again he was quite wonderfully magnanimous about how lucky he was to be sharing these songs up on stage with his friends and to a lovely audience who were neither “heckling nor hassling” him.
I make no apologies of being a fan boy of Red House Painters, Sun Kil Moon and the “very bad man" himself, nor do I excuse any off colour things he may have said, but let's lay off him eh ? I guess the spotlight is firmly on him, and any aspect of his behaviour is analysed and scrutinised under a microscope, and perhaps that’s deliberate from his side….any publicity is good publicity right ?
Tonight was wonderful, memorable, charming (best behaviour perhaps), emotional and long overdue. Controversy ? What controversy.?
Keith
Set
Mariette
Micheline
Hey You Bastards I'm Still Here
Carissa
Richard Ramirez Died Today of Natural Causes
I Got You Babe
The Possum
Ali/Spinks 2
He Always Felt Like Dancing
I Watched the Film the Song Remains the Same
Dogs
Little Rascals
This Is My First Day and I'm Indian and I Work at a Gas Station
Encore:
I Can't Live Without My Mother's Love
Caroline