Magnetic Fields + The Real Tuesday Weld

Did you know that the Magnetic Fields' lead guitarist is called John Woo? Bet he kills people for making jokes about it.

Support today came from The Real Tuesday Weld, whose existence I knew of but music I'd never heard. Turned out to do some truly excellent deliciously chilled out lounge/cabaret, lyrically ranging around the same alleys inhabited by Barry Adamson and Serge Gainsbourg with a little bit of Tammy Wynette thrown in (they cover Stand By Your Man most entertainingly), and with jazz guitar, brush percussion and wind instruments the music fits perfectly their 30s image. Stephen Coates' on-stage persona goes a little OTT with the louche, and his French ain't good, but he and the band managed a great toe-tapping smile-inducing opener in front of a two-thirds-empty hall, so more power to them.

Magnetic Fields (hall now perhaps two-thirds-full): Stephin Merritt, with his flat cap, shirt sleeves, and ukulele could have stepped straight out of a socialist realist poster, or maybe a coal mine. Looked incongruous sitting to the right of half a string quartet (with the pianist balancing him out at the other side of the stage). His voice in real life is deeper than I expected, even though it's pretty deep on record. Claudia Gonson, pianist and occasional vocalist, pretty much led the evening, doing most of the talking and counting in most of the songs — though Merritt was pretty talkative himself, and reference was made to not being able to talk to the audience in English while their tour was in Spain (last four dates, preceded by one in Portugal), so perhaps there was an element of that operating tonight — they were definitely more chatty than most bands I've seen play, which was nice. Comments included stuff about bands who do requests not being worth seeing (!) (although in context of Merritt's profession only to be able to remember the words to Punk Love (three words in more-or-less random order) and 69 Love Songs containing, well, 69 songs, I have some sympathy with their just not wanting to do requests). Both Merritt and Gonson spent the evening fiddling with their ears; they seemed to be wearing badly-fitted earpieces. Twice during applause he covered his ears as if in pain — wonder whether it's really that loud on stage or is there a Problem looming? Mission of Burma spring to mind. Hmm.

Songs were generally very faithful to the records, well played & sung; the duets particularly stood out for the extra visible interaction between Merritt and Gonson. Highlight was a fabulous half-acted performance of Yeah! Oh Yeah! for an encore, but it was a crowd-pleasing set anyway, with loads of 69LS tracks getting cheers on the opening chords, Papa Was a Rodeo particularly so.

Couple of moments of sadness during the show: a minute's silence observed for John Peel <sigh>, and mention of Marc Almond's recent motorcycle accident before singing Strange Powers, which they sang at a gig with him a few years ago.

Overall despite loads of great music and engaging performances the evening felt a bit unsatisfying though, and I think I'm going to blame it on the venue. I'm not at all a fan of the Queen's Hall for general gig purposes: there's something a bit sad about people trying to get really enthusiastic about a song while confined to chairs, and the concert-hall atmosphere seems a bit deadening or something for this kind of music — obviously you've got to try and work out a balance between good acoustics and appropriateness of venue but the "pop" gigs I've been to here seem misplaced.

Very glad The Magnetic Fields visited Edinburgh though, & might yet buy a Tuesday Weld album too..

[Really written much more about other stuff than the music. That seems pretty inappropriate. Sorry.]