London’s Hammersmith Apollo isn’t what you’d call intimate. And yet Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder makes the 3,600-seater venue feel like a living room, or a cosy campfire singalong. And it’s not just because he’s surrounded by a vintage radio, reel-to-reel tape player, battered suitcases (complete with The Who sticker), various old-timey speakers, assorted instruments, and, later, an actual campfire complete with starry sky backdrop.
It’s midway through Spoon’s set at Forum Kentish Town. A fired-up Britt Daniel has just led the band, backlit in orange, through a ferociously jubilant ‘Do You’. Multi-instrumentalist Alex Fischel begins a moody keyboard piece that gradually swells to Sigur Ros levels of intensity.
‘Be Myself’, the title of Sheryl Crow’s latest album, says it all. After flirting with soul and classic country on her last two outings, ‘100 Miles From Memphis’ and ‘Feels Like Home’, she’s gone back to her roots, embracing the sound that first made her a household name. The decision to be herself once more was clearly personal, as lyrics like “Hanging with the hipsters is a lot of hard work” make abundantly clear. But there’s the added benefit of the new material slipping seamlessly into a live show that, from the get go, leans on her first three star-making LPs.
“I want to talk to you, but I have a problem,” Oumou Sangaré tells an adoring Village Underground crowd who greet each of her songs with jubilation. “My problem,” the Malian songstress laughs, “is English.”
But, when it comes to “The Songbird of Wassoulou”, something as trivial as language is no barrier. After all, the vast majority of people rejoicing inside this packed Shoreditch venue don’t understand a single word of the Bambara language she sings in. That’s a testament to her glorious voice, refined and finessed over almost five decades of performance. A singer from the age of five, she knows how to pack a single phrase with more emotion than most vocalists get into an entire song.
There must be moments when Matt Shultz’s roadie wishes he worked for someone less energetic. Someone who’s not always moving, his microphone cable entangling the monitors. Someone who’s not always dropping into the photo pit, his microphone cable reaching snapping point. Someone who’s not always leaping into the crowd, his microphone cable entwining with a writhing mass of body parts.
But there must be moments when Matt Shultz’s roadie knows that the more he has to unravel that microphone cable, the better the show: Cage The Elephant’s thrilling live performance is fuelled by their mercurial frontman. Whether he’s doing scissor kicks off the mic stand, jumping on guitarist Nick Bockrath’s back mid-solo, rolling around on the ground, or high-stepping it, Bowie style, across the stage, it’s impossible to look away. There’s a hint of danger, the promise of the unexpected to everything he does but — with the possible exception of his offstage excursions — Shultz is clearly in complete control, never letting his theatrics distract from the band’s songs.
Tonight it’s a heady mix of swampy blues rock grooves showcasing all four of their studio albums. Although ‘Cry Baby’, the first track from the brand new Dan Auerbach-produced ‘Tell Me I’m Pretty’, kicks off the setlist, its stoned-out bliss is immediately followed by the take-no-shit swagger of ‘In One Ear’ from their self-titled 2008 debut. The fuzzed-out fun in the sun of psychedelic ‘60s throwback ‘Spiderhead’ and the jangly ‘Take It Or Leave It’ represent ‘Melophobia’, before the distorted garage rock of ‘Aberdeen’ showcase 2011’s ‘Thank You Happy Birthday’.
And so it continues for close on two hours as Shultz, his rhythm guitarist brother Brad, drummer Jared Champion, bass player Daniel Tichenor, Bockrath, and multi-instrumentalist Matthan Minster sweat and swing their way through 20 songs that represent their decade-long ascension from Kentucky anonymity to saviours of rock.
Mileposts along the way tonight are set highlights ‘Ain’t No Rest For The Wicked’ (the best of Beck and The White Stripes), ‘Shake Me Down’ (loud-quiet/beautiful-violent), relentlessly groovy ‘It’s Just Forever’, cinematic ‘Cigarette Daydreams’, and confrontation meets inspiration ‘Punchin’ Bag’. By the time they reach the finale, a ragged ‘Sabertooth Tiger’, Shultz (now sans shirt and jacket) launches himself into the crowd once more. This time, though, he scrambles onto their shoulders, clambers up a fire escape, and quite literally dives back into their arms. Never mind the symbolism, this is the stuff of rock ‘n roll dreams come true — for artist and fan alike.
Cage The Elephant
O2 Forum Kentish Town
11 February 2016
A lot’s changed for Mike Doughty in the 20 years since he lived in London. He split Soul Coughing, the “deep slacker jazz” band that brought him success and anguish. He quit the drugs that helped him cope. He went solo. He wrote a memoir. He wrote a rock opera. And he started taking selfies with various food products.
But what’s not changed are his feelings towards the city he called home for most of 1996.
How would you recover from a gruelling US tour? Goldfish’s David Poole went surfing in the Maldives. Dom Peters, the Cape Town electronic duo’s other half, attended a music festival just outside his home town.
“That was probably the wrong thing to do,” Peters laughs on the line from the group’s studio. “I wore a hoodie, which helped, because everybody kept asking me what time I was playing.”
You can tell a lot about someone from their Instagram account. The Rock clearly likes working out, meeting fans, and raising his eyebrow. ‘Expresso’ presenter Katlego Maboe is a snappy dresser who meets many socialites and enjoys coffee and rugby. And Founding Director of Black Real Estate, Thato “TT” Mbha, is a dynamic, gregarious, well-travelled family man with no time for negativity. Always smiling (often with equally happy celebrities by his side), he’s mad about his two daughters, golf, fashion, and sharing inspirational quotes like “Pay attention to your dreams”.
“Life,” says Bruce Dube, “gets to be hard. But it’s a beautiful struggle.”
He should know. Today, the 27-year-old rules a pan-African digital media empire that incorporates youth portals, e-commerce sites, gaming and video channels, recruitment resources, and classifieds platforms. But his beautiful struggle to the top — marked by failure, hunger, and even death — has been as taxing as it is inevitable.
Paul McCartney’s been at it for over half a century. He’s long since lost the element of surprise – yet tonight, during what’s billed as his 50th London show, that’s exactly what he delivers.
Nils van der Linden