There are some artists that make one feel privileged, lucky, part of a secret, but very happy conspiracy. Patrick Wolf really should not be one of them. Cursed with talent at a very young age, he must have looked around the Black Cat and wondered just why it hasn't happened for him yet. Unfortunately, Monday night, there just weren't enough people in the room to pay proper tribute. The small crowd was enthusiastic, certainly, screaming like schoolgirls as he leapt onto the stage, greeting us with wild, Cale-esque makeup and four feathers in his hair.
He launched directly into Wind in the Wires, beautiful, delicate, fragile and gorgeous. He played ukulele, trading later for
violin, and singing with power and sophistication beyond his young age. His backing band – drummer, violinist, tuxedo-clad standup bass player and laptop…operator…looked happy, dazzled to be there, and graciously allowed changes to the set list as Patrick requested, shyly asking for their indulgence. He roamed freely among his three albums, playing unexpected tracks, such as London and Land's End, only indulging us with Tristan among the singles. The encore, then, was electrifying, smashing into an extraordinary rendition of Accident and Emergency, followed by a stomping, rushing version of the Libertine, ending with the Magic Position. Thanking the crowd for his indulgence, and admitting his nervousness about playing Washington for the first time, he bowed and took his leave. Would that he returns again soon.
or just
Previously in Live DC:
- 2/13: LiveDC: George Clinton & The Parliament-Funkadelic @ 930 Club
- 2/13: LiveDC: Veronica Falls/ Brilliant Colors @ Black Cat
- 2/13: LIVE DC: Steve Aoki/ Datsik/ Alvin Risk @ Fillmore
- 2/13: LiveDC: The Darkness @ 930 Club
- 2/9: LiveDC: Theophilus London @ 930 Club
- 2/9: Best Weekend Bets
- 2/8: LiveDC: Kathleen Edwards @ 930 Club
- 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
- 2/8: LiveDC: Thurston Moore/ Kurt Vile @ Black Cat
- 2/7: LiveDC: Demetri Martin @ Warner Theatre
God loves a cheerful giver.
The sound left a lot to be desired. In future, they should just mic the string instruments.
what the hell is this sentence:
"Would that he returns again soon."
????????
steve, good point. i did a search on that sentence construction, and look what came up first:
"COULTER: Would that it were so!
KUDLOW: Would what were so?
COULTER: That the American military were targeting journalists.
KUDLOW: Oh, no! Don't go there."
would that i were not using sentence constructions used by ANN COULTER. i might as well be quoting mein kampf or the fountainhead.
by the way, i MUST give the maddest of "props" to bishi, the opening act. imagine a south asian bjork, playing electric sitar to smashing, chemical brother beats, singing like a goddess, dressed like a fever-(wet) dream of xanadu (complete with peaked shoulders), and generally stunning the audience, the bartenders and me, into awe. i bought the cd. so should you. a tantric whirlwind of pleasure. thank the gods!
http://www.myspace.com/bishimusic
“Would that he returns again soon.” = optative subjunctive mood.
(It just means "I wish that he would return soon.")
blah, very boring. i left after 5 songs. oh yeah, could you explain to me what "cursed with a talent" means, i mean did something awful happen when he played a piano....
blah blah blah- the sound could always be better, i wish he played that blah, point is patrick wolf is a great artist and it was a good show.
mike yates:
i'm sure that william will have a more detailed and eloquent answer to your question, but i thought i would also give it a shot.
what i think he means is that patrick wolf was/is a musical prodigy and as a result he didn't live even a semblance of a 'normal' life. he started really making music and discovering his ability at the age of 11. by the age of 14, he was completely obsessed and in a band of his own. at 14, fat cat records discovered him and actually decided to back him - giving him all the equipment he would need to begin his own real recording. they just wanted to see what he could do. but, this is neither here nor there, but is pretty remarkable.
the big thing is that he was never a normal kid - even in the slightest. he was plain weird. a total freak (although i appreciate his style and need to constantly change his hair color). according to a lot of the things i have read, he had a really difficult (to say the least) relationship with his parents on top of being insane(ly) stubborn and driven to do nothing but make music. he left home at age 16 and survived by busking.
i get that many of us were freaks when we were kids and made fun of for being weird. but, his life went way beyond that. and he also isn't wanting anyone to feel sorry for him because he didn't get along with mommy and daddy, or because he was different than the rest of the kids at school. those things just made him who he is, and you can tell that he embraces that.
he was a teenager when he created 'lycanthropy' - which is his first full-length record as patrick wolf. in many ways, this record is still my favorite.
he marches to the beat of his own drummer. he doesn't really give a s*** what anyone thinks. he flies off the handle constantly. he is totally passionate and in love with making music - of all kinds. he is weird. he is talented. he is totally and completely insane. and we are benefiting from it because his albums are effing amazing.
meanwhile, i'm off to see him here in new york. i'm sorry you thought the show was boring. perhaps he was having a bad night, because i have seen him a few times and he has been brilliant.
well, i thought the first song was brilliant, and then, i totally agree, the show sort of lost velocity, waning for about four songs. here's the thing, though - it then built into a finale that was nothing short of extraordinary. sorry, mate, you missed an amazing second half of the show. the encore was worth its weight in gold.
Um, William, were you even at this show? I have to ask because "Accident and Emergency" and "The Libertine" were played in the main portion of the set and "The Magic Position" wasn't played at all. I was at the show, am a huge fan, and am really doubting your credibility here. The encore was only one song, a b-side from the upcoming b-sides and rarities album, which he played alone on stage with his ukelele. Also, since you loved Bishi so much, I am kinda surprised you didn't mention the duet with her on "Magpie," but at this point, I think it is because you were not there to see it.
I agree with some of the comments that the show hit a bit of a lull after the first few songs when he started to get into the Lycanthropy material, which is not nearly as good as the last two albums, but the second half of the show was fantastic. He started dancing and becoming more of a performer and seemed to let loose a litle bit.
he definitely played the magic position in new york. it is interesting because the beginning of the show here seemed a little slow in the beginning too - but, wow, it certainly took off. i don't take that at all to be because the songs off lycanthropy aren't good enough because i adore that album - and in new york his first few songs weren't strictly from that recrod. maybe it is just a matter of him gaining energy as he goes along? more booze as he goes along? who knows.
what i thought was funny from last night is he started to play boy like me during the encore, then after 40 seconds stopped saying he didn't like that song anymore. this makes me horribly sad of course because i love that song. oh well.
then, he ended with lycanthropy (the song), which i thought was very bold.
also, i feel like we are getting stuck in the minutia of the effing set list. come on people. who cares. the show became amazing, and unless you were there writing the songs down as they go along, then whatevs.... all points remain the same.
p.s. i still don't really love magpie. even with bishi singing.
sorry - one more thing about the new york show. he came out wearing a grey, curly, grandma-esque wig with glitter in it. that kind of freaked me out. fortunately, he took it off after 2 songs.
but, this made me starting thinking about the "cursed with talent" thing. all i could think about at that point was mozart. i'm a classical pianist and am as uncomfortable with comparing patrick wolf to mozart as perhaps you are in reading it. but there are hints of similarity in the insanity, talent, age, etc...
anyway.
matthew, i was there, right until lights up. did you see the really tall guy who walked right up front and got the set list and the feather from the black cat floor manager? yeah, that was me. hard to get those things if i left during the show, especially the feather, without assaulting mr. wolf. i can send you a picture of the setlist if you're still skeptical. here's what is on it:
wind in wires
overture
pigeon song
bluebells
tristan
jacob's ladder
paris
to the lighthouse
magpie
stars
lands end
-------
a&e
magic position
still, you're right, i can't find any evidence aside from the setlist that he played the magic position. i tried to take notes during the show of what he played, by typing it into my cell phone. i was, i can assure you, slightly tipsy as i took these notes. this is what i have:
wind in the wires
mad world song from new one
setlist change
bluebells
the libertine
marianne faithful-song
stars
extra stars verse
accident!
so, right, that's clearly not all the songs he played. so, while i was writing up my review, i pulled out the setlist and tried to reconcile the two lists, using both the cell phone notes and my set list as the only pieces of truly documentary evidence i had. it said "magic position" on the setlist, so i assumed i'd neglected to note it, along with the others. DAMN IT. i must've dreamed that. i love that song.
then again, dcist, in spite of doing a much better reporting job than me, still got the setlist wrong:
http://dcist.com/2007/10/03/so_much_drama_i.php
note that they're missing jacob's ladder after the pigeon song. jacob's ladder mixed into the libertine, if you'll remember. that was the song that got up from the bar after the lull that stretched from london to pigeon song.
they also didn't mention that teignmouth outro-ed with an emotional piano rendition of shadowsea, and missed both the aforementioned london (before paris, natch) and to the lighthouse (right after paris) altogether.
so, do you doubt that dcist was there, too?
it was after either paris or to the lighthouse that patrick said that this was the first time he was in washington, and he was a bit nervous about being here, and that this was the seat of power or whatever, and rambled on to say he put bush on the setlist. it was weird, but cute. whatever.
so, from your message, can i take it that "barghest" was the encore?
anyway, to sum up, yeah, i got the order wrong, and the magic position probably didn't get played. i believe, based on archival evidence, that this was the actual black cat playlist on october 1:
wind in the wires
overture
teignmouth/shadowsea
bluebells
london
paris
to the lighthouse
pigeon song
jacob's ladder
tristan
accident and emergency
the libertine
magpie with bishi
stars (with an extra verse not on the album)
encore: barguest
and, i was fucking there.
fair?
dammit. he totally didn't play to the lighthouse in new york - even though i was screaming it non-stop.
oh well. i guess i will have to live vicariously through dc.
wow. that's a first.
(hehe. sorry, i couldn't resist. just kidding....)
oh oh, he also said that he wouldn't play the childcatcher anymore. he said something about "someone actually did that and so now i can't play it." then he said something about "that song isn't from my soul, it is from my leg."
uh. okay.
He never played the Magic Position. I can assure you...
He deviated from his set list and picked songs at random, though he did debut Barghest, from his new album, here.
i stand corrected. this is what happens when you try to forensically reconstruct a set list of a show you saw while drunk, after you get on the plane to brussels. my bad.
that said, i'm still thrilled i got the setlist. i just wish i'd gotten the one from beirut.