one faint deluded smile

Sunday, January 30, 2005

Come So Far

Picture by David Boswell

So it's Friday night and we head off to the Sydney Opera House for "Came So Far For Beauty - An Evening Of Leonard Cohen Songs". I've never even vaguely liked Cohen - the length and verbosity of his lyrics bores me and his spare, gloomy voice puts up the final roadblock to any sensual enjoyment. But I can appreciate the song-craft (sort of) and they seem perfect for re-interpretation.

I suppose the singers involved in this event were the main drawcard for me : Rufus and Martha Wainright, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, The Handsome Family, Beth Orton, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Linda and Teddy Thompson, Antony (?) and 2 of LC's backup singers - Perla Batalla and Julie Christensen. The band were made up of people I didn't know except for the late inclusion of the great Chris Spedding on guitar! They had a guy playing musical saw on most songs too - very nice.

I won't go through it song by song because (a) I don't know their titles and (b) I prefer to enjoy a musical evening rather than take notes like some weird train-spotter. So just some general impressions then:

It was a 3 hour concert which was probably a little too long, especially when at least 1/3rd of the songs had similar arrangements to the originals: sometimes this worked beautifully as with a trio of Linda, Kate and Anna but overall it made the evening drag. Nick Cave was the least impressive of them all although his rock star moves made for a change from what everyone else did - standing still for the most part. I didn't expect much from Jarvis Cocker or Beth Orton but, in many respects, their tunes were the most effective. Cocker was a complete showman and his voice was great - perfect for the tracks he took hold of. Orton's 1st solo piece was magical with a slightly East European style of vocals backing her up and the most atmospheric arrangement of the show. Turn up for the books was Antony - someone I'd never heard of before - whose angelic voice is high but very smooth at the same time. He seemed enormously nervous and fluttered his hands a lot - as one friend said, like Joe Cocker - crossed with the stylings of Jeff Buckley. The Handsome family were a hoot, apparently as they always are, even if Rennie can't sing worth a damn. Perla's R&B diva vocals were quite grating even if she got the most applause in the night (for some reason, people just love that type of singing) but Julie Christensen's cabaret inflected performance was perfect for her solo piece. Teddy Thompson was in pretty good voice too. And finally, Martha Wainwright's slutty 70's outfit came as a complete surprise especially when her boobs kept on trying to have a good look at Utzon's lovely Opera Theatre.

I suppose Hal Willner's involvement will mean that a CD will appear eventually. One that I await with pleasure.

5 Comments:

  • that's quite a coincidence. a couple of days after i heard of antony for the first time and really enjoyed the 90 second song at buked & scorned you see him live. really sweet and tuching that voice though i ask myself if i could sit through a whole album. there is something very mannered about it.

    By Blogger Alexander, at 5:42 pm  

  • it's definitely mannered and i agree that 40+ mins of it in one go may be too much. shall see when i get an album. apparently he's been in australia a bit - he sang some of the "nico bits" for the last lou reed tour down under!!

    By Blogger Phil, at 7:23 am  

  • i went as well-although on the sunday night and noticed that a camera crew were filming it-i presume it may get a release as a DVD-glad to see you noticed Mr Spedding!!
    Kristen

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 10:03 pm  

  • They had a guy playing musical saw on most songs too - very nice.

    I wish you remembered his name... I collect musical saw CDs, such as www.cdBaby.com/paruz

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 6:33 am  

  • Hi Phil, I came across your site while doing a search on Sexy Celebrities, popular female sigers, dancers, actresses and models. Though you don't have exactly what I was searching for it still provided quite an interested read. Thanks and keep up the good work!

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 3:53 pm  

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