Venue:
Whelan’s, Dublin
Date: 15/02/2025
In short, it was exactly what you’d expect. I texted my wife halfway through to say it made a Josh Rouse gig seem like punk. He’s been the benchmark for low energy, easy listening live music for 20 years or so now. In contrast to Josh Rouse, this seemed totally appropriate – what else would the High Llamas sound like live? They played complex quiet music very competently with polite minimal interaction with the appreciative audience. Odd chords and no sharp edges. Very musical but not much you’d be humming on your way out. The band had sheet music (or cues) in front of them for every song and the keyboard player worked wonders with multiple sound changes within songs. The recreation of their recorded sound was well achieved. Sean O’Hagan’s vocals were fragile but what else would they be? His daughter Lily provided vocal backing and occasional lead which was nice. If you had to picture what a female vocalist for the High Llamas would look like, she’d be what you’d imagine – junior librarian with brown cords that had me reminiscing about my last pair of flares. The only song the audience might regard as a “hit”, was kept as the final encore. An excellent rendition. All in all, as I said at the start, it was exactly what I expected it to be. If you like the High Llamas then you can probably imagine it too.
The audience:
90% male of course. Females present looked like they were accompanying male fans somewhat reluctantly. Lots of grey hair and bald heads on the floor from our vantage point on the balcony.
It made me think..
Fair play to a band staying true to themselves and not changing in an attempt to tailor their stuff to the live setting. I said, after an hour or so, that it was just nice to see them playing live. I never saw them back in the day, except when they were Arthur Lee’s backing band.
Coincidentally, I just listened to Gideon Gaye today for the first time in years. I loved that album and the slipstream had me buy the next few, but none captured me as much. I can imagine that their (his?) concerts are fairly sedate affairs.
I saw them live when they were touring small venues for the Hawaii album, and they were very good. Doing that kind of music without a hint of irony takes balls, I think, and they really deliver.
In terms of albums, they lost me a bit after Cold & Bouncy, which I think is my favourite one these days. I played Hello Panda, and it is easily one of the weirdest albums I’ve ever heard – a bit like someone found a way to turn dreams into music. I must go back and listen to all of them.
I was due to see them in London a couple of months ago but calendar mix up got in the way! I did see them way back just after Santa Barbara was released and it was excellent but back then they were a much more straightforward band. I love the latest album – takes a while to work it’s magic but worth persevering.