As 2015 comes to its close and we look ahead to 2016, it's time to do the cliched task of recollecting the albums released in 2015 that we enjoyed. These are not presented in any particular order, but these were some of my favorites. What were some of your favorite albums!?
Duran Duran - Paper Gods
Duran Duran - Paper Gods album cover
Duran Duran returned this year with Paper Gods, an album that proves they still have "it." The album is a rich combination of what Duran Duran was most known for in the new wave/new romantic period of the 80s mixed with a refreshing flourish of pop bravado common to today. Like many 80s bands, Duran Duran still falls victim to the trend of trying to rediscover themselves, failing on the first couple attempts, but then reclaiming that flame with the newest album. For Duran Duran, Paper Gods is the reclaiming album they and fans alike have been looking for. We'll have to see what comes next for the group, but hopefully this is just the beginning of a strong upward trend.
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss album cover
We reviewed Chelsea Wolfe's newest album a while back and it has only continued to grow on our ears. Easily her heaviest album yet, Abyss is a concept album of sorts that revolves around the phenomenon of sleep paralysis. Dark, brooding, moody music set to guiding vocals characterizes much of the album. Not only is it the heaviest album by Wolfe to date, but it may well be the most solid. Given how great this album is and previous effort Pain is Beauty, the only place for Wolfe to go is up, regardless of whether the music continues to get heavier or is reigned back. Added bonus - the live show is really strong and Wolfe is such a delightful performer. You're missing out if you've yet to see her on the live stage.
She Past Away - Narin Yalnizlik
She Past Away - Narin Yalnizlik album cover
She Past Away returns with their second album, Narin Yalnizlik. The Turkish darkwave group (yes, Turkish, and darkwave, and lyrics in Turkish!) makes a strong showing on this album, experimenting more with sounds and textures than they did on their debut album. While on the whole I prefer the debut album, this one is not an album to snub your nose at. She Past Away keeps a firm hold on their 80s darkwave roots (similar in ways to Xymox/Clan Of Xymox), meshing broken Turkish lyrics to a lush musical backdrop. The group finally reaches the US for a couple quick stops in California early 2016, but this is hopefully just the beginning of the group's foray into the US.
Killing Joke - Pylon
Killing Joke - Pylon album cover
Another album reviewed earlier this year here, Killing Joke returned full force with Pylon. Easily their strongest album in years, Pylon meshes the post punk aesthetic Killing Joke helped pioneer in the late 70s/early 80s with heavy distortion and an industrial feel characteristic of the group's more recent efforts. Almost their highest charting album ever, Pylon may well be the best album of 2015, for me at least. The group tours the US in 2016, hitting Texas towards the end of January.
Peter Murphy - Remixes From Lion
Peter Murphy - Remixes From Lion album cover
It wouldn't be a year it I couldn't write something about Peter Murphy, now would it? The Godfather of Goth (I can see his eye twitching at me saying this, but I didn't pick the title!) released a follow-up album of unused material from the Lion sessions. Most of the remixes offer an interesting reinterpretation of tracks from the main album. Better yet, the album includes the previously vinyl-only track "Gabriel" in all its multi-layered glory and a very solid series of newly released "The Sound of Water" and the Youth remix of "Loctaine," the one remix I think I may actually like more than the original (though the original take of "Loctaine" is also very strong and a favorite of mine). 2015 was a strong year for Murphy, even if quiet, in a sense. In addition to the Remixes album, two live albums were also released (the full audio from the Mr. Moonlight Tour as one and finally an official recording of the House of Blues show from April 2000 via Cleopatra). However, Murphy only played a handful of dates in June in California. By all accounts, 2016 may be a very loud year for Murphy, starting with a major role in the upcoming psychological thriller BlackGloveKiller.
Hailing from Omaha, Nebraska, Strap On Halo are one of the newer goth rock bands that holds on to many of the sentiments of the genre's 80s and 90s founders (being a healthy blend of some of the musicality behind Christian Death, Xmal Deutschland, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and even a sprinkling of groups like Skeletal Family and March Violets). But, often, the alternative music scene, especially the darker gothy side, isn't one that evokes feelings of Christmas. Surely, when December comes rolling around, we must don our all-black drab and hang black tinsel on a black colored tree with a raven for the tree's demented star? Strap On Halo's upcoming release, Ode to Krampus, reveals just how goth rock can tackle the spirit of the giving season.
Strap On Halo's Ode to Krampus is finally coming to vinyl in 2015
"Ode to Krampus" was originally recorded in 2013 but is now receiving a physical vinyl release for the first time. The song opens with a melancholy piano part coupled to a driving drum beat and a sprinkling of guitar work from Sean Rial. Layla Reyna's haunting voice enters the mix, beginning the ode to Krampus. The chorus is introduced with a gorgeously held note, "Run...as fast as you can." Musically, the sound of mystery and allure is retained, complimented nicely by the work of Marc Jones on bass - subtle, yet every bit as important as the vocals and driving piano.
The song continues on in this fashion, ending mysteriously enough after three minutes and change of play. Strap On Halo maintain their traditional gothic sentiments on this one, painting an auditory picture of the darker side of Christmas. While not everyone's cup of tea, this is one to surely make the goth in your family a little happier this season.
Strap On Halo. Left to right: Layla Reyna, vocals/drums/keyboards/arrangements, Sean Rial, guitar, and Marc Jones, bass
Ode to Krampus will be released later this month and is strictly limited to 25 copies which include a 3.5" round sticker and a handwritten lyric sleeve with the clear 7" vinyl itself. Pre-orders are now live through the Strap On Halo bandcamp site. The group will also be releasing their newest album, Prayers for the Living, in January of next year with a mini tour of the United States in the works. They're a fun live group and delightful people to talk to, so catch them if they come to a city near you!
Last month, I finally got to see Skinny Puppy live (in the event I don't write my thoughts on that show, it was purely amazing, theatrically and musically sublime from start to finish). Opening for them was a band I'd heard of, but hadn't listened to or seen before - Youth Code. Suffice to say, that night, the duo from Los Angeles won me over as a fan. They've also recently released a two song 7", Anagnorisis, that we'll look at today. The long and short of it all - this is a group that is going places and you'd be wise to keep an eye on them.
2015's Anagnorisis from Youth Code
Before getting to the music, allow me to say that the first thing that struck me was the make-up of the group - Ryan George taking on duties as programmer, synths, and mostly backing vocals and Sara Taylor taking lead vocals live (providing additional sampling and synths in the studio). Let this sink in. Can you name any industrial/EBM bands fronted by a woman? That night at the show, I strained to. Roughly a month later, I'm still drawing blanks. This is part of what makes this group so unique and begs the question - why aren't more women leading industrial bands? Because if Taylor is any indication, we women sure can KILL it!
Okay, personal anecdotes and musings aside, we look at Anagnorisis. The self-titled track opens with synths mixed with an audio sampling, starting light enough. As the song progresses, additional electronic elements begin to enter, even featuring a moving part slightly reminiscent of early Gary Numan before Taylor's gritty, caustic distorted vocals kick in. It becomes an instantly catchy tune and it's hard to not bop your head in time. As the song progresses, Taylor backs the screaming off, clearly resonating the lines "This is a trigger/This is despair." Afterwards, the song begins to fade out, dropping elements one by one until a white noise of sorts takes over, leaving the end fuzzy, broadcast out, so to speak.
Youth Code - Ryan George, left, and Sara Taylor, right
The other side holds "Shift of Dismay," a song that starts off musically as a mashup of Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein, Skinny Puppy, and Front 242 (as in very familiar in sound to some of the songs each group has made over the year, yet still distinct and unique to Youth Code). The song builds into Taylor's vocal entry, taking on a very militaristic marching feel meshed to biting industrial electronic undertones. After the first minute and a half, the song transitions, backing off the electronics slightly, and bringing in a brooding, echoing vocal cascade, creating a lavishly sinister tone that consumes the listener.
Last night the group played in Miami and it appears they may be taking a small break to round off the year, but keep an eye out for them next year. Looking to score Anagnorisis? Sadly, all three presses of the 7" have sold out, but you can stream them on Spotify and check out Youth Code's other work on their Bandcamp site.
David Bowie. What is there to say about Bowie that hasn't been said before? His music over the span of his multi-decades long career has been as ever evolving and changing as his personal style and fashion statements. Truly, there is little Bowie can do wrong, having long ago mastered the art of mystery and the grace of drawing in fans with an allure that we still can't fully put a finger on. Through memorable characters like Ziggy Stardust and The Thin White Duke, Bowie has easily championed the art of personal branding. More so, very few (if any, to be brutally honest) artists can suddenly disappear without a single word, no hints, only whispers of "Is he? Will he? Can he?" murmured in dark shadows magically reappear in full splendor, picking up somehow where they left off, fans still there and eager for what comes next. That was Bowie in 2013 when, on his birthday of January 8th, his first new song in years came to life, bringing the shocking revelation that his first new album following a long and silent ten year hiatus, The Next Day, would be released very soon. And now, three years later to the date, Bowie will release his follow-up album to that immensely successful album - Blackstar. Among the tracks is lead self-titled single, "Blackstar."
David Bowie, 2015, still ageless as ever
"Blackstar" was originally born from a project involving Bowie and the British television series The Last Panthers, with the song itself serving as the title track for the show and being an embodiment of the characters and themes of the show. From that initial work, Bowie has ventured to create the entirety of this next album around that concept, mixing in earlier influences and crafting what may well be one of Bowie's less obvious and more peculiar works.
The near ten minute opus begins peaceful enough, a dancing guitar tune matched to a mysterious, almost ethereal arrangement. Bowie's voice enters, his ageless croon set in octaves, adding an element of mystique, for lack of a better word. The stage is set for something that makes you a little uncomfortable - it's the familiarity of Bowie, mixed with something a little sinister and unsettling, but you can't quite place it. You listen on, determined to figure out what it is.
There's an otherworldly effect to the beginning of "Blackstar" (which matches perfectly to the opening scenes of the accompanying music video). The song maintains its otherworldly ethereal pace as the video itself comes upon Bowie with his eyes wrapped in cloth and two black "pupils" attached, as if he were a blind seer.
Imagery in the video becomes progressively darker and more disturbing, from skeleton astronauts to figures moving as if they were seizing as they stood. All the while, the music retains its ethereal feel, mixing in a solemn saxophone. An odd mixture, yet still fitting.
As the first four minutes conclude, things slow down, the music drops to mainly a slowed drum beat, the transition mirrored by an unmasked Bowie in the accompanying video. Shed away is the mysterious music, filled instead with a more optimistic arrangement - hope. Gone, too, is the almost ominous feeling octave vocal harmonies, leaving Bowie's perfect, crisp voice instead. By this point, the music returns to a similarity of the Bowie of old - funk-inspired bass above a moving drum beat set to smooth vocals, mixed with sprinklings of piano and guitar almost reminiscent of The Next Day single "Where Are We Now?"
The remainder of the song continues in this fashion ending on a digital beeping sound much like the noise a robot in 80s television would make, demonstrating Bowie's refusal to make the same kind of song over and over, constantly changing and evolving. This is why Bowie can get away with a ten year silent hiatus and come back to being in the spotlight instantly. The one complaint? The post-transitional portion of the music video does Bowie no visual favors.
Blackstar the album will be released January 8, 2016. Pre-orders are live through David Bowie's online webstore and include limited edition lithographs and clear vinyl. What will be interesting to see is how the rest of the album shapes up. As was seen with The Next Day, the lead single was not a clear indication for the rest of the album's style and flow. Time will soon surely tell, but I think it's safe to say that whatever David Bowie has cooked up, it'll be great.
Killing Joke embody so much of what made late 70s/early 80s post punk amazing - brooding lyrics half sung, half screamed by a wide-eyed Jaz Coleman over a backdrop of edgy guitars and driving bass. The last couple of Killing Joke releases, however, seemed to have lost much of that strength that the band has been known for. This year, the group returned with Pylon. Long story made short - this may actually be one of their best albums ever.
2015's Pylon album cover
The groups previous efforts with the reunited original lineup (consisting of Jaz Coleman, Martin "Youth" Glover, Paul Ferguson, and Kevin "Geordie" Walker), 2010's Absolute Dissent and 2012's MMXII, were strong ventures in their own rights, but don't stand up as well compared to the prior efforts of the group. For as strong a band as they were, it seemed more and more that Killing Joke would be on a path of constantly trying to recreate the flame they once had in the 80s, coming close each time, but not quite fully igniting. With Pylon, the fire is finally burning strong and bright.
The album opens with perhaps my personal favorite, "Autonomous Zone." A catchy drum and bass driven number (love that small flourish of a bass solo lick Youth cranks out when everything else drops out), Coleman paints a picture of what humanity should strive for - end to war, but an end to mindless control, as well.
Pylon then winds through songs like distortion-laden "Dawn of the Hive," which carries the auditory equivalent of a beehive and playing follow the leader blindly, to the absolutely relevant, brooding "New Cold War," which outlines some of the recent tensions between the West and the East.
"Euphoria" loses much of the industrial distortion of the prior tracks, instead donning more of a new wave feel and lacking the yelling Coleman was known for. Instead of sticking out awkwardly, however, the song provides a nice transitional point in the album, signaling a change of pace from the driving beats of the first few songs to the slower riff-heavy songs like "New Jerusalem" and "War on Freedom."
The album wraps up with lead single "I Am the Virus," a driving more punk-styled number set to Coleman's chant-worthy yells, helping wrap the album in much the same way as it began. "Into the Unknown" officially rounds off the album, guitar-driven, yet smooth, clean, and certainly catchy, leaving the listener anticipating more, but being left on that cliff hanger ending with nothing further to fall on.
Killing Joke's original lineup. Left to right: Martin "Youth" Glover, Jaz Coleman, Paul Ferguson, Kevin "Geordie" Walker
Of this year's offerings, Pylon may well be at the top of my list. It's every bit as much a classic nod to the old Killing Joke mixed with a healthy dose of new ideas, emerging as one of their strongest albums to date. Killing Joke begin their tour of North America in January. The group will play here in Dallas at the Granada Theatre on January 21, marking the first time in 22 years that the band has visited North Texas. This is not a show to miss. Tickets are on sale now through the Granada Theatre's ticketing site.
John Lydon (perhaps better known by his punk stage persona Johnny Rotten) founded arguably the first post punk outfit in 1978, Public Image Ltd, after punk rock essentially met its ill-fated and rapid end with the death of fellow Sex Pistols bandmate Sid Vicious (okay, there's much more to the story than just that, but as far as the genesis of Public Image Ltd is concerned, that was the defining moment). Public Image Ltd (PIL) return in 2015 with their tenth album, What the World Needs Now... and it's a doozy.
Album cover for What the World Needs Now...
Part of what made the post punk genre a lasting and highly influential one was born out of the blank void punk left behind in the late 70s. Punk challenged the boundaries of what "music" meant and served as a means of expression for working class youth faced with rough world economies and questionable, at best, futures. Without getting into an extended discussion of punk's beginnings, rapid dissolution, and the rise of post punk, understand that the music industry shifted perspective in the 70s and that post punk was born in a period where extreme creativity was highly encouraged. Punk showed the world that you didn't need to have any particular training to be a musician - anyone with the desire to express themselves and play music could, and should, do it.
PIL from its very inception was one of the bands at the forefront of this limitless musical landscape. Where the Sex Pistols followed in traditional punk rock bravado (power chords and anarchist-leaning lyrics, typically speaking), Lydon took PIL to a very different space, welcoming a slower tempo and more innovative music led by a heavy bass sound and coupled with Lydon's distinctive, bitter snarl.
John Lydon at Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, Texas, back in November 2012. Despite the interview and stage antics, he was very nice to talk to, though short of words at the time.
With this brief overview in mind, delving into What the World Needs Now... is like taking that rich past and setting it on fire. This is an album that has vastly deviated from so much of what originally defined PIL that it's hardly recognizable as a PIL album. Even Lydon's typical jabbing half singing, half yelling affair is greatly lacking in this latest showing.
What the World Needs Now... opens with lead single "Double Trouble." This number is characterized by a rather drab mixture of guitars and drums, nothing standout musically. Lyrically, Lydon seems to have strung together a series of random words with the only requirement being that the lines rhyme. The subject matter, apparently based around an argument Lydon had with his wife about a plumbing issue, leaves little to the imagination and is perhaps the negative side of an artist crafting lyrics around personal anecdotes.
Songs like "Bettie Page" and "C'est la Vie" had the subtle sparks of being great songs, at least where the music is concerned, but were met with lackluster lyrics and a run-on of garbled vocals that hardly hearkens back to the style Lydon is most known for. If one didn't know better, they'd ask if Lydon even was the singer for most of these songs.
"Spice of Choice" interrupts the opening rubbish of the album and proves to be a surprisingly solid track, capitalizing on an interesting guitar lead and a strong vocal showing from Lydon who finally proves that he still has the same talents which first catapulted PIL to instant success in the 80s. This high point is immediately dulled with follow-up song "The One" which more closely resembles a lost b side for Three Dog Night than a PIL song with its bass driven shuffle step feel and semi whispered singing vocals from Lydon. The song itself isn't bad, but feels out of place when compared to the typical backdrop of a PIL song.
Eight minute opus "Big Blue Sky" starts with a dominant bass line, only to be caught in a far overdone circle of repetitious loops and tired choruses. This was a song nearly doomed from the start, never finding a true calling and purpose, and the eight minute length only adds further insult to injury.
The last of the album surprisingly comes to life and finds direction. "Whole Life Time" brings the tide back around, with a funk-esque inspired bass line leading the way, a musical high point to the album. The style continues on into "I'm Not Satisfied" which almost has a parallel feel to one of PIL's most popular songs, "(This is Not a) Love Song" with a similar repetitious lyric that the rest of the song is built around. The album is rounded out with Lydon answering minimally what it is the world needs now: "Another fuck off." More aptly, what the world needs now is for Lydon to find direction for this reincarnated form of PIL.
Perhaps much of this latest offering from PIL was intended as a joke, but it's one that never reached the punchline. In a time where older bands are reuniting and putting forth new albums to stand beside their old glories, PIL goes the way most of these bands are going - dismal, at best, results with songs that never fully form a direction. Lydon's vocals try to save several of the musically lackluster songs, but even his voice has its limits. Perhaps a stronger showing than their previous album (2012's This is PIL, the group's first new album in twenty years), but certainly a far cry from what PIL once was. Lydon will need to take a much closer look moving forward. If this was meant as a joke album, it's time to grow up and either create meaningful work once again or stop taking the fans for fools who will buy anything. Not an impressive showing in the least. Sorry, Johnny.
PIL begins an extended tour to support What the World Needs Now... on September 18, 2015 in Glasgow. The group reaches the US in November, but no tour dates in Texas have been announced as of yet.
Chelsea Wolfe returns with her newest experimental art-meets-rock album, Abyss, building on the successes of prior albums like Pain is Beauty (2013). Those seeking the short form need look no further - Abyss is another strong showing from Wolfe and you would be reminisce to merely dismiss it as art rock noise.
Chelsea Wolfe - Abyss (2015)
Nailing down Wolfe's work depends largely on which album you choose to listen to - from experimental post-industrial sludge to deeply brooding neofolk with nearly everything imaginable between, Wolfe has consistently gone for complete artistic freedom and an unwillingness to do the exact same thing every time.
Abyss is easily the darkest of her albums yet, and the first to truly bring to the forefront the flecks of metal genre influence that have been sprinkled sparingly in past albums. Where it was a subtle hint adding to the rich musical landscape in the past, those tones now growl to life as a barrage of doom and gloom guitar distortion that can only be described (by me, anyways) as industrial sludge (said with full affection and praise).
Chelsea Wolfe has always walked the fine line of goth aesthetic without plunging fully into it musically. That all changes with Abyss. Photo by Johanna Torell.
Another refreshing twist in the landscape of Abyss is an immediacy with each song. Wolfe's vocals are, as always, spot on and powerful, even as they serve in stark contrast to the music (clear perfection against a backdrop of sinister distortion). These are songs meant to be immersive from the start, not taking their time to build and grow into something. Where Wolfe's prior work certainly carries that indie "take it or leave it" feel, Abyss comes off being the first album to truly draw in the less musical savants among us.
Abyss, based around the concept of sleep paralysis, opens with "Carrion Flowers" and immediately throws the listener into that panic state of being unable to wake up, fighting to escape, before lightening up towards the end, resembling a moment of briefly waking and escaping the dream. As "Iron Moon" begins and immediately returns to that harsh panicked state, we lapse back to sleep and find ourselves surrounded by the nightmare once again. Other tracks of particular notice include "Dragged Out" with a particular haunting, ghost-like quality at the end, "Grey Days" for its more reserved feel and driving cello as Wolfe sings about the River Styx, and "Color of Blood" for its initially gloomy and persistent moody atmosphere molded around Wolfe's notion that we should all "Grow old, let [our] hair grow."
Throughout the album, Wolfe serves as the guiding light through the periods of unease, wakeful fits of hope, and vast depths of darkness. In the deluge of post-80s "gothic rock," so much of what is called goth has become mired in terrible cliches and drab (no pun intended) melodramas, perpetuating ages old stereotypes that none of the original art-meets-glam-rock bands would have endorsed. Wolfe brings the artistic expression back by creating a musical embodiment of sleep paralysis through a combination of visual lyrics, rapid shifts in music from panicked and schizophrenic to calm and comforting in the blink of an eye, and a voice to guide the dreamer through the nightmare they've embarked. Though not strictly a concept album, Abyss does a near flawless job of transforming the listener from start to end. While it won't be everyone's cup of tea, this may easily be Wolfe's strongest showing to date. And if her attitude is any indicator, this is just the beginning of what will surely be a long and lasting ride.
Wolfe returns to Dallas (fun fact, Abyss was actually recorded here in Dallas) at the Kessler Theater this Sunday (September 20,2015) with Wovenhand as openers. Tickets are on sale now (purchase tickets from the Kessler Theater). By all accounts, this won't be a show to miss.
It's been a long time (general business with a long term web project I've undertaken and going back to school), but some of you have asked, and so here I am with a new addition to the music reviews! It's been a major buzz topic these last couple weeks, but today we'll look at Siouxsie Sioux's latest musical offering, "Love Crime."
Siouxsie Sioux
For those who follow the post punk genre as I do, the name Siouxsie Sioux is unmistakable. She is to the post punk world what Elvis Presley was to rock in the 50s. Always one for a distinctive style, be it in physical appearance, musical style, or witty comebacks during interviews, Sioux has always embodied a particular penchant for reinvention in each music project she's endeavored. From the seminal work as Siouxsie and the Banshees, arguably one of the defining bands of the 80s British post punk offerings, to the percussive-heavy project The Creatures, to an eclectic yet familiar powerful first solo album, Sioux is perhaps one of the very few artists who does great things regardless of the project, having yet to make a large musical mishap.
As it were, following a strong debut solo album (2007's Mantaray), Sioux would essentially drift off into the shadows, making small appearances here and there as a reminder that she's not gone, just hiding. Brooding. Much with David Bowie's mysterious ten year hiatus, Sioux would seemingly vanish for approximately eight years. After all that time, the "Ice Queen" returns with a new song, "Love Crime."
Brian Reitzell
Sioux, a fan of the television series Hannibal, was tapped by Brian Reitzell (former drummer of Redd Kross and current musical supervisor and composer for the Hannibal series) with the suggestion of a collaboration. Sioux immediately agreed and inquired what the final season would more or less be about - a love story, as it were. Sioux began writing lyrics without having seen any of the final season or receiving any major details on the overall plot line. What resulted was "Love Crime," the first song Sioux has written and sung in roughly eight years, and possibly the first of many in a line of collaborations with Reitzell.
The song itself is on the slower side, reminiscent in some cases of 1992 Banshees hit "Face To Face" (featured in Batman Returns). It is an eerie song, driven by drums, violin, and bass, before a moving guitar section kicks in behind Sioux's ever refined and spotless vocals. Though cliched as it may be, Sioux is a perfect example of how age can make the voice even stronger and richer than it was already. Listening to this song literally gave me goosebumps. It's a glimpse into what Sioux could have been doing all these years, but has kept pent up instead, evolving and growing into an incredibly strong first showing in eight years. Not that Sioux needs my approval or anyone else's, but "Love Crime" makes a strong argument for her full return to music. Let's just hope that future collaborations between her and Reitzell find their way to a music release...and sooner rather than later.
Starting things off right for 2015, Midge Ure played the historic Cactus Cafe in Austin last night (January 18, 2015) to a sold out crowd. What took place was easily a brilliant (see what I did there?) show and one that if you missed you should kick yourself over.
Midge Ure
Midge Ure, known for his work with Visage and Ultravox as well as a nice solo career, played Austin for the first time last night, opening to cheers with Waiting Days from his 1991 album Pure. Between songs, Ure told plenty of jokes, making fun of how certain Ultravox songs became big hits everywhere in the world except in the United States, and how audience members seated on the side of the stage were getting to enjoy a rather interesting view of his "enormous backside" and should receive a refund.
The twenty song set included newer Ultravox song Brilliant and classic favorites such as Hymn and Vienna, all arranged for a one man acoustic show. Considering the rich instrumental complexity behind many of the Ultravox songs (as in guitars, bass, drums, synth, etc.) it sounded like an impossible feat to convert those favorites into faithful acoustic renditions, yet, somehow Ure accomplished this feat perfectly. One such shining moment of this was when Ure performed the Visage dance club sensation Fade to Grey (which I dare say I think I enjoyed this version a bit better than the original!).
Prior to the encore, Ure joked about how he could run out the door next to him and freeze his backside, walk through the crowd and stand outside pretending like he may or may not come back for an encore, or just act like an adult and stand in the corner for a second before doing an encore. After playing an expertly done acoustic version of the Ultravox hit Dancing With Tears In My Eyes, Ure did exactly as promised, standing in the corner of the stage for a bit while the audience gave him a standing ovation.
Ure finished the night with the title track to his newest album, Fragile, followed by an impromptu performance of Do They Know It's Christmas for the two young kids in the audience who were enjoying the show with their family (the group having made a 500 mile drive to see Midge Ure perform, no less!). The night ended with the audience singing along to The Voice.
Following the show, Ure came out to greet fans, take pictures, and sign autographs. He was in no rush and spent ample time talking with each fan, sharing stories and happily taking multiple photos.
Personally, I don't know which was better - the performance or the jokes. Both were great and show Ure's absolute comfort and domination of the stage. The other good news of the night? Ure hinted that Ultravox may yet be touring the United States in support of Brilliant. A perfect night with a wonderful musician. Ure heads to Florida next to continue his tour. Don't miss out on this great performer!
Note: I know it's been a while since I last wrote here. Been very busy, but I've made a resolution to write more, even if it isn't always about brand new albums or shows I've been to. It's just really fun to do! First few articles may be a bit rusty, but it'll get there again. Thanks for the continued support everyone!
