It’s been a busy year for Cate Le Bon with the release of two new albums and constant touring both here and over in Europe and America. With the addition of numerous festival appearances this mini tour is a final chance to catch up with her on these shores this year.
‘CYRK’ and its follow up ‘CYRK 2’ showed an increasing confidence in songwriting for Miss Le Bon and this is accentuated in the setlist tonight which draws heavily on those two albums. Set opener ‘Julia’ also shows a brave approach at the live performance with its mournful keyboards and haunting vocals setting the scene for a night of superb music.
Little crowd interaction is needed as each song follows the other into a cacophony of melodies and screaming guitars. Second song ‘Fold The Cloth’ has Cate reeling across the stage like a wailing dervish, demonstrating her more than capable talents at guitar playing. The dark nursery rhyme of ‘CYRK’ lilts and sways like some sick fairground ride as the band get into their stride and ‘Seaside, Lowtide’ displays hidden depths not initially heard on ‘CYRK 2’.
The new songs from ‘CYRK 2’ mix well with its sister album adding new dimensions to the older tracks. Where-as ‘Falcon Eyed’, here played out like some insane Velvet Underground song, has more poppier elements, ‘What is Worse’ is a much darker prospect building into an ominous melody. ‘Puts Me to Work’ and ‘Greta’ also show this dichotomy in the music and relay a need to continue probing into both light and dark.
Final song ‘Ploughing Out pt.1 and 2’ takes the epic dimensions of the studio track to new levels tonight as Cate and band create a maelstrom of noise and feedback which drags the crowd into its vortex. Guitars scream and drums pound as Cate bellows out the final pay-off lines culminating in a total breakdown of noise confusion as she leaves the stage leaving a single guitar repeating feedback. A tremendous night of music which highlighted the tightness of her touring band and her prowess in the live arena.
Posted by Martyn Coppack.
