Last night...
Patrick Wolf was phenomenal. I now want to see him again and again and again. If his DC and NY shows were in reverse order, I think I would now be making preparations to drive down immediately. I have to say it’s a ridiculous shame that his show wasn’t sold out. If any of you have the chance to see him, go and be blown away, because he’s utterly wonderful.
(photo courtsey of patrickwolf community, taken in DC on Monday.)
He was so absolutely lovely, and so much better live than on record, that I’m feeling seriously disappointed that I have to go back to listening to him on CD again. I quite like him on CD, but I love him live. Some of that is the greater immediacy and vibrancy of the music (it feels absolutely muted on CD in comparison), but a lot of that is due to his personal charisma. I’d heard from others about how endearing he is onstage, and well, he is. It’s not that he does anything specific or special, but he really is just so genuine, so easily confidential, that he establishes an intense interpersonal intimacy. He is not a performer, in the sense that he has very little artifice, acting or filters in his self-presentation-but he takes such sincere, guileless joy in his music that it’s infectious. Despite my feeling quite detached about him before the show (“sure, I like his music, why not go?”) I couldn’t help beaming at him in sheer exhilaration throughout his entire set. He was wonderful facial mimicry as he sings. Just tiny little rolls of the eyes, sideways grins, raised eyebrows, and all very of-the-moment, not at all rehearsed, so that he seems just as pleased and surprised in playing each song as the audience is in listening. And-his best onstage talent perhaps-he can really, really connect with his audience. All the other shows I have gone to, I would hear people talking afterwards about how the performer looked at them or made eye contact or whatever, and I couldn’t tell what the heck they were talking about-just about every other performer I’ve seen, it was obvious that they weren’t really looking anywhere in the audience most of the time. They might notice someone specific briefly (usually at the very beginnings of songs and in intermissions), but mostly they would be singing in the audience’s general direction, and looking just over the audience rather than into it. Only if they were really good, like Bowie, they would get their “over-the-audience” gaze close enough to make it seem like they were in fact looking at you. In this, I think Patrick is the only one who measures up to Bowie so far. He seemed to be looking at-and really engaging with-various members of the audience all through his set, even while playing.
This type of authenticity wouldn’t necessarily work for all musicians, but it does for him. I kind of wondered why he had a set list on stage, as halfway through he gave up all pretense of following it since he only played the songs he felt like. In fact, I was amused that he announced (slightly apologetically) he was going to disregard the setlist-I had assumed he was going to do that from the outset. Well, he did follow it just enough to make sure to play his latest singles and some other “musts,” but that was about it.
The only slightly disappointing thing was that he didn’t show to his afterparty, to the surprise even of the promoters. (Well, and that he didn’t do a longer encore, but really I wanted him to play for like another hour.) He seemed like maybe he wasn’t feeling well though. There was no stripping tonight, and he didn’t move about the stage much. Other people remarked that he was very subdued too. In fact, he basically parked himself at the keyboard and didn’t move much from there, aside from the times he’d stand at the center mic. He made a few essays to go relocate, but seemed to be really tied to the keyboard, saying “I’ll do a few more songs from here-I just feel really comfortable here,” etc. I’d say it’s a testament to his charisma that he made the entire set captivating nevertheless.
I did wonder a bit about the people on the right side of the stage, farthest away from him (his keyboard was center-left), but they seemed to be satisfied enough. I had a very good place to watch him from-dead center, second row. At first I felt a bit jealous of a friend who managed to get to first row proper, but then I realized that people in the first row couldn’t move, while as I could stand to either side of the person in front of me, and thus see Patrick equally well whether he played on the keyboard or sang on the mic.
The audience too, was great, and played a huge part in how much I enjoyed the concert. There was no pushing, no aggressiveness and no rudeness, and even though people stood close in, I had quite enough room to move and breathe and even dance a little. I went away to use the restroom and get a drink after claiming my spot, and there was no difficulty at all in getting back to it. I was actually surprised how close to the stage I got, considering I didn’t come to line up all that early and had to pick up my tickets-but everyone was extremely well mannered, calm, and respectful. Initially I was even confused as to where the stage was by the fact that there was no rush to it: everyone just sort of walked over, in no great hurry, and placidly took their places.
Plus people were so sweet and friendly. I went by myself, but I ended up meeting a whole bunch of great people, and we all hung out for quite a bit afterward. As more and more people eventually joined our group, everyone would ask each other how they knew each other, and laugh when they’d be told that no one had known anyone else prior to this evening.
Anyway, it was a definite good time.
Oh, and though she should get much more than a footnote, I need to add that the opening act, Bishi, was simply fabulous as well. People enjoyed her so much they didn’t want her to finish her set, ha. She wore an amazing dress and great shoes and played the sitar and was all sorts of awesome.
(photo courtsey of patrickwolf community, taken in DC on Monday.)
He was so absolutely lovely, and so much better live than on record, that I’m feeling seriously disappointed that I have to go back to listening to him on CD again. I quite like him on CD, but I love him live. Some of that is the greater immediacy and vibrancy of the music (it feels absolutely muted on CD in comparison), but a lot of that is due to his personal charisma. I’d heard from others about how endearing he is onstage, and well, he is. It’s not that he does anything specific or special, but he really is just so genuine, so easily confidential, that he establishes an intense interpersonal intimacy. He is not a performer, in the sense that he has very little artifice, acting or filters in his self-presentation-but he takes such sincere, guileless joy in his music that it’s infectious. Despite my feeling quite detached about him before the show (“sure, I like his music, why not go?”) I couldn’t help beaming at him in sheer exhilaration throughout his entire set. He was wonderful facial mimicry as he sings. Just tiny little rolls of the eyes, sideways grins, raised eyebrows, and all very of-the-moment, not at all rehearsed, so that he seems just as pleased and surprised in playing each song as the audience is in listening. And-his best onstage talent perhaps-he can really, really connect with his audience. All the other shows I have gone to, I would hear people talking afterwards about how the performer looked at them or made eye contact or whatever, and I couldn’t tell what the heck they were talking about-just about every other performer I’ve seen, it was obvious that they weren’t really looking anywhere in the audience most of the time. They might notice someone specific briefly (usually at the very beginnings of songs and in intermissions), but mostly they would be singing in the audience’s general direction, and looking just over the audience rather than into it. Only if they were really good, like Bowie, they would get their “over-the-audience” gaze close enough to make it seem like they were in fact looking at you. In this, I think Patrick is the only one who measures up to Bowie so far. He seemed to be looking at-and really engaging with-various members of the audience all through his set, even while playing.
This type of authenticity wouldn’t necessarily work for all musicians, but it does for him. I kind of wondered why he had a set list on stage, as halfway through he gave up all pretense of following it since he only played the songs he felt like. In fact, I was amused that he announced (slightly apologetically) he was going to disregard the setlist-I had assumed he was going to do that from the outset. Well, he did follow it just enough to make sure to play his latest singles and some other “musts,” but that was about it.
The only slightly disappointing thing was that he didn’t show to his afterparty, to the surprise even of the promoters. (Well, and that he didn’t do a longer encore, but really I wanted him to play for like another hour.) He seemed like maybe he wasn’t feeling well though. There was no stripping tonight, and he didn’t move about the stage much. Other people remarked that he was very subdued too. In fact, he basically parked himself at the keyboard and didn’t move much from there, aside from the times he’d stand at the center mic. He made a few essays to go relocate, but seemed to be really tied to the keyboard, saying “I’ll do a few more songs from here-I just feel really comfortable here,” etc. I’d say it’s a testament to his charisma that he made the entire set captivating nevertheless.
I did wonder a bit about the people on the right side of the stage, farthest away from him (his keyboard was center-left), but they seemed to be satisfied enough. I had a very good place to watch him from-dead center, second row. At first I felt a bit jealous of a friend who managed to get to first row proper, but then I realized that people in the first row couldn’t move, while as I could stand to either side of the person in front of me, and thus see Patrick equally well whether he played on the keyboard or sang on the mic.
The audience too, was great, and played a huge part in how much I enjoyed the concert. There was no pushing, no aggressiveness and no rudeness, and even though people stood close in, I had quite enough room to move and breathe and even dance a little. I went away to use the restroom and get a drink after claiming my spot, and there was no difficulty at all in getting back to it. I was actually surprised how close to the stage I got, considering I didn’t come to line up all that early and had to pick up my tickets-but everyone was extremely well mannered, calm, and respectful. Initially I was even confused as to where the stage was by the fact that there was no rush to it: everyone just sort of walked over, in no great hurry, and placidly took their places.
Plus people were so sweet and friendly. I went by myself, but I ended up meeting a whole bunch of great people, and we all hung out for quite a bit afterward. As more and more people eventually joined our group, everyone would ask each other how they knew each other, and laugh when they’d be told that no one had known anyone else prior to this evening.
Anyway, it was a definite good time.
Oh, and though she should get much more than a footnote, I need to add that the opening act, Bishi, was simply fabulous as well. People enjoyed her so much they didn’t want her to finish her set, ha. She wore an amazing dress and great shoes and played the sitar and was all sorts of awesome.