Venue:
Kings Theatre, Edinburgh
Date: 25/08/2017
I’ve been looking forward to this for months and I was not disappointed.
This was part 1 of the 50-Song Memoir (part 2 tomorrow – yay!), consisting of the first 25 songs, no encore. Presiding genius Stephin Merritt sat in his own intricate set (see picture) made up like his own childhood room , with toys etc. and a selection of instruments to hand. Beyond that were 6 musicians, who together delivered pretty good adaptations of the sometimes intricate arrangements on the record.
They were aided by a selection of videos designed to accompany the songs. Merritt dominated proceedings, of course. He did this largely by sitting still and using expressive body language (in a low-key way – he is an eye-roll ninja) and droll between song asides.
I absolutely loved it. Can’t wait for part 2 tomorrow.
The audience:
Mixed! A surprising amount of laughter – to me anyway; it’s seldom laugh-out-loud funny to me. During the interval, found that I was sitting 2 seats down from @ralph of this parish, which was nice.
It made me think..
The Kings is a lovely venue, ideal for this sort of performance. And what a treasure Merritt is.
Sounds wonderful!
Properly jealous.
I wonder if Ralfy was there as well, being Embra?
Looking forward to the Dublin shows Monday and Tuesday.
The laughing at his gigs always annoys me a little though. Yes, Merritt writes wonderful, funny lyrics but I presume most of the people present at these shows have already listened to the albums numerous times – in which case, are the lines really funny enough to make you laugh out loud again? It strikes me that people want to show that they ‘get’ the gags.
You are in for a treat!
And I think you’re spot on re the laughter.
So what did you think of the Dublin shows, @monsignorbonehead ?
Hi @landocakes – great shows as I expected. One thing I hadn’t been expecting or hadn’t heard was that none of the usual MF crew – Claudia, John, Sam – are in the group in this incarnation. I love their playing and missed that, but otherwise can have no complaints. The arrangements were perfect, the main man was in good form, and the videos and set design were lovely.
I also hadn’t been expecting Stephin’s spoken intros to most of the songs, which added to the experience. Not a huge crowd present, the show was on in a Concert Hall and I reckon was only half full both nights but I suppose this wasn’t a show for the unconverted.
As with the album, most of the music was wonderful. And for those tracks that aren’t so good, you knew another one would be along in 3 minutes.
Part 2 was also ace (and has more of my own favourites).
It started with my least favourite song from the album, the a cappella-ish “The day I finally cracked” , which was actually more entertaining live, where you can actually see Merritt using his ‘percussion stick’.
Even more impressed with the way the band interpreted the arrangements. A lot of work has gone into this show.
Again no encore. They do come back on for a curtain call but Merritt is clearly bothered by his hyperacusis (cf weird diseases) and in a hurry to get off.
I paid a bit more attention to the band members and can say that they included long-time collaborator Chris Ewen, regular member Shirley Simms and Pinky Weitzman (who had a series of fetching dresses).
You forgot to mention the decade matching costume changes – 4 over 2 nights. Nice finishing touch to very special show(s).
Only really noticed it with Pinky, tbh. Surely Merritt’s changes weren’t decade-linked?
Edinburgh International Festival filmed the first night and have just released the performance of A Cat Called Dionysus. Here it is: