By: David de Young
 |
|
Echo and the Bunnymen at the Fine Line - Photo by David de Young
|
Saturday night at the Fine Line in Minneapolis, a shoulder to shoulder crew of Echo & The Bunnymen fans got pretty much the same set as most towns have been getting on this tour. The band, formed by Ian McCulloch and Will Sergeant, who played their first gig in Liverpool in the fall of 1978, is on the road this winter supporting their latest album,Siberia. The brand new Cooking Vinyl Records release is easily their best effort since Sire's Ocean Rain in 1984, and fast-spreading word about the quality of new disc may have been one reason the Fine Line was packed.
California’s Innaway opened the night of music and were exposed to quite a few new fans. Many songs on their self-titled debut full-length are heavily influenced by Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon to be exact, but the band is so shameless about this flattery that it’s not only forgivable, but laudable. Lead singer Jim Schwartz told me after the set that it’s sometimes hard for the lesser known band to capture the full attention of audiences full of primarily Echo & the Bunnymen fans, but sometimes, like on this night they did it. And word is that they completely sold out of merch.
I should mention that I’m one of those “first-wave” Echo & The Bunnymen fans who has been a fan since 1980, who stayed up in the dorm hallways debating the nuances of their lyrics in between debates about Nietzsche and Kierkegaard. (Now, if that isn't a pretentious rock and roll review reference, I don't know what is, but I always considered McCulloch to be one of the most bookish songwriters of his time, and he made his own share of literary references, such as the one to Shakespeare contemporary John Webster in "My White Devil.) I filled in my album collection over the years to include every E&TB album except the one the band did without McCulloch (Reverberation, Sire, 1990), though I made up for this by owning one of his solo albums (Candleland). Echo & The Bunnymen is the band that drove home for me the inextricable link between spirituality and sensuality, perhaps best exemplified a single line from “Silver” (the second single from Ocean Rain), “Just look at you, with burning lips / you’re living proof at my fingertips.” That same song encouraged personal responsibility for salvation: “Man has to be his own saviour.”
 |
|
Ian McCulloch of Echo and the Bunnymen at the Fine Line - Photo by David de Young
|
The band opened with “Going Up,” the leadoff track from their debut album Crocodiles (Sire, 1980), and followed up with “Show of Strength,” the leadoff track from their second album Heaven up Here (Sire, 1981). But any worries this might be a nostalgia show were calmed immediately with the third song, “Stormy Weather,” the first track off Siberia. With “Stormy Weather, the running E&TB theme of strength in the face of doubt, and the spiritual aspect of the “Just Do It” mentality returns, this time taking the form of “You want it / You got it / There’s nothing chained down. / You need it / I’ll steal it / Just put your name down. / I’ll put my name down.” Then there's that piercing and powerful pile driver of a guitar solo by Will Sergeant that sings with melancholic sweetness as much any he's done.
Ironically perhaps, McCulloch lit a cigarette on “(My Life’s) The Disease,” and I was hard pressed to see him not smoking for the remainder of the show. (I wonder if it’s on his rider somewhere to be able to smoke even in cities around the world where smoking bans are in effect. You can see the little orange glow of his cigarette tip in nearly all the live photos of him on the net.)
By the time the band broke into “Scissors in the Sand,” another stand out track from Siberia, it was clear they had their hooks in the audience and had no intention of letting up. From a musicians’ standpoint, I thought how wonderful it must be great to tour in support of such a great album after all these years. As a fan, I could have stood there listening to Sergeant’s guitar and McCulloch’s voice all night. Only “Back of Love” seemed to fall a little flat compared to my recollections of recorded versions I have heard. And I could have done without “In The Margins” live, one of the weaker tracks on the new album in my opinion.
The band paid tribute to their heroes The Doors as they morphed “Villiers Terrace” from Crocodiles into “Roadhouse Blues,” and it felt like a second big hello though towards the end of the set.
“Thank you, Minneapolis. Kiss, kiss,” said McCulloch as the band exited the stage before the first of two encores. They returned to deliver four more songs including “Nothing Lasts forever,” (which included a tip of the hat to Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Sid" and Wilson Pickett's "Midnight Hour") "Lips like Sugar” and they finished off with “Ocean Rain.”
----
Trivia: “Echo” is the nickname Will Sergeant and Ian McCulloch gave to the drum machine in the first incarnation of the band.
Liam Gallagher sings the “Yeah yeah yeah” backup part on the recorded version of “Nothing Lasts Forever.”
Minneapolis got this exact set minus With A Hip (http://www.flickr.com/photos/heavenuphere/62201884/)
Set list - Minneapolis (11/26/05)
1. Going Up (Crocodiles)
2. Show of Strength (Heaven Up Here)
3. Stormy Weather (Siberia)
4. Dancing horses (Pretty in Pink Soundtrack and Songs to Learn and Sing compilation)
5. The Disease (Heaven Up Here)
6. Scissors in the Sand (Siberia)
7. All That Jazz (Crocodiles)
8. Back of Love (Porcupine)
9. Killing Moon (Ocean Rain)
10. In the Margins (Siberia) I could have done without this one live
11. Never Stop (single)
12. Villiers Terrace (Crocodiles)
13. Of A Life (Siberia)
14. Rescue (Crocodiles)
15. The Cutter (Porcupine)
Encore
1. Nothing Lasts Forever (Evergreen) (w/ Walk on the Wild Side / Midnight Hour)
2. Lips like Sugar (Echo & The Bunnymen)
Encore 2
1. Over the wall (Heaven Up Here)
2. Ocean rain (Ocean Rain)
Related links:
Interview and live performance on 89.3 "The Current"
Location Info:
Fine Line Music Café
Artist Info: Echo & The Bunnymen, Innaway
Share this story:
Article comments powered by Disqus