What’s up, you little snots!?!?!
Apologies for that, but as is customary with these end-of-month posts, I’m always in a bit of a mood that consists of a primary conflation of relief and agitation… or perhaps it’s just plain tiredness, who knows/cares? However, this month I can also add a little dash of an elated tizz to my typical mood for I was able to play my part as a first-hand spectator to what will likely be one of 2014’s key reference points in the annals of pop music history. For you see, I was one of the lucky thousands of people who had the opportunity to see the inimitable Kate Bush live on stage at the Eventim Apollo in London for her first live tour in thirty-five years, a twenty-two date residency that sold out within minutes of tickets becoming available online. Of course, there was intense consternation from fans as to what exactly Bush and her creative team, dubbed the KT Fellowship, were to come up with right from the off. Whilst she has begun to tentatively release more music after a dry spell that lasted over a decade beginning with 2005’s beauteous Aerial (subsequently backed up by 2011’s double release of the questionable remix compilation Director’s Cut and the thankfully-amazing 50 Words For Snow), a primary worry was whether Bush would even be present onstage at all, on account of her well-documented crippling stage-fright. And even if she was, was she up to the physical demands of such a long run of shows after decades away from the live performance arena, and could her team come up with something worth waiting thirty-five years for in terms of content and quality, something that felt as timeless and special as her music does but that also had the appropriate level of bombast and wonder that could only be conveyed in a live show created in 2014?
Given the finite work present in the writing, arrangements and production of her studio albums (all mostly credited to herself, literary icons notwithstanding), even the passing fan would assume that a live performance of her particular oeuvre wouldn’t be anything less than a huge undertaking diligently constructed with passion and flair, and the Before The Dawn tour didn’t disappoint (unless you were hoping for anything pre-Hounds Of Love being performed anyway). A three-hour production (read: not a concert) split in to two halves, the stage is primarily set as a slick, “greatest hits”-style affair, as Bush’s band and back-up singers file themselves onstage to deafening cheers from the audience in front of an expansive, top-of-the-line lighting rig. Then as the intro to The Red Shoes‘ “Lily” begins, Bush herself enters barefoot to a standing ovation so instant and cathartic it’s a wonder the roof of the Eventim hasn’t been blown off; she’s visibly overwhelmed and teary-eyed from the crowd’s reaction (and it won’t be the last time that happens tonight), but with a cautiously gracious smile she gets things going agreeably with a smattering of her more well-known hits, including a barnstorming rendition of “Top Of The City“, her voice still more-than-capable of reaching those spine-tingling highs. Then, after about thirty minutes, the concert set-up is literally blown away, as one of the band’s percussionists takes centre stage away from Bush for the finale of “King Of The Mountain” and heralds in a seismic scene-change that plunges the concert hall into darkness to rapturous applause. And this is when Bush’s unique otherness really starts to take hold of the show, externalizing itself into a spectacle that manages to deliver a challenging-yet-rewarding cross between the cinematic, the theatrical and the musical.
Preceded by an amusing interlude featuring a flustered astronomer, the rest of the first half dedicates itself to the second half of her Hounds Of Love album, or “The Ninth Wave” as Bush and her fans have deigned to moniker it, which details a woman’s physical and emotional journey as she fights for survival after being thrown overboard into a deathly-cold sea. Bush had wanted to create something of a mini-movie inspired by this suite back when Hounds was first released in 1985, but came up against too many technical, logistical and financial difficulties with regards to trying to capture her vision. Now, armed with a bevy of collaborators including novelist David Mitchell, creature/set designer Robert Allsopp and former Royal Shakespeare Company alum Adrian Noble among others utilizing all kinds of formidable stagebound trickery, she was able to deliver this tale to her audience in person. True, it may have been harder to swallow for some expecting a simple live band set-up, especially during a few longer-than-most scene changes being coupled with Bush’s frequent prolonged exits from the stage, but at least she and her team endeavoured to deliver something no one had likely seen before or will ever again, especially in the moments featuring our beleaguered heroine projected on to a giant screen singing wistfully of sheep as she lifelessly drifts in a watery expanse. For those not particularly fond of the West End-style theatrics offered by “Wave”, the night’s second half offered something a little more pleasingly abstract in terms of narrative and production, itself based on another nightly half of one of Bush’s albums, namely the suite “A Sky Of Honey” from Aerial. The band were back at the forefront after being foisted downstage by “Wave’s” ambitious set-pieces and were even able to interact properly with some of the action this time, imbuing the second half with a more improvisational, organic feel particularly near the end once Bush’s blackbird character had worked everyone into a frenzy for a high-flying finale.
In truth, there is far more for me to tell here than three long paragraphs can do justice to, and not all of it is complimentary. Bush’s evident penchant for theatricality did give rise to moments that strove for profundity but came across as rather clunky and forced; one such instance of this was the whole prelude inside the crooked room before “Watching You Without Me” in “Wave”, even if it provided one of the staging highlights of the night not just with the self-contained structure’s rocking back and forth but ultimately when Bush magically inserted herself into the scene. When I saw it, the audience took a collective breath of surprise that segued into a sigh of relief, previously desperate for the star to return to the stage as soon as possible. Which isn’t to say that the rest of Bush’s company of actors, dancers and puppeteers didn’t work hard or lacked presence in of themselves (including her son Albert who, I shall put it politely, “seems promising”), it’s just that they were sharing the stage with a reluctant icon whose presence is still as earthy, enigmatic and engrossing as it was when she first came to prominence. By the point of the second act finale “Aerial“, which sees Bush taunt her band with an arm that has since become a wing resplendent with black feathers, her eyes widened with sensual hysteria as she screams “I want to be up on the roof”, it’s hard to ignore the woman’s magnetism, which offsets her misty-eyed humbleness when she directly acknowledges the audience at the encore wonderfully. Even if you come away from Before The Dawn a little waylaid by the sheer scale and more curious inclusions of its whole enterprise, there’s no doubt of its standing as a monument to its progenitor’s mercurial charm, talent and most importantly her gall to see something this peculiar and huge through to the end. And there’s half the chance that given how swimmingly this has all gone, she won’t leave it so long next time either…
Me an’ ma Kate Bush swaaagg…
And that was the proverbial that. In other news, September also happened to be the month I hit the magical 300 number in terms of new music releases that I had the pleasure (or not) of listening to. So to cap things off, here is:
Dibder’s 2014: September Mix
01) “Cirlont14 (Shrymoming Mix)” by Aphex Twin
02) “No Gravity” by Moiré
03) “Wilkie” by Roman Flügel
04) “The Mother Lode” by Thom Yorke
05) “Belly Of The Beast” by Gazelle Twin
06) “Hunger Of The Pine” by Alt-J
07) “Venus” by Nick Mulvey
08) “Fool” by Perfume Genius
09) “Wrong” by Kilo Kish
10) “White Is Red” by Death From Above 1979
Oh, and FKA twigs for the Mercury Prize 2014!!!
xxxo
dibdersbooth 