Came So Far For Beauty...

venue:   Brighton Dome review date:   Saturday, 22 May 2004 words by:   Bec Chalkley

review

This was no ordinary gig crowd, no barging, moshing, snogging throng gulping beer from plastic glasses and wafting their camera phones in a forest of LCD screens. It was an older crowd in their Sunday best, sipping wine, from proper glasses no less. Some arrived with chauffeurs and some were off the telly.

But then this was no ordinary gig. United just once before in New York last Summer, this amazing ensemble curated by Hal Wilmer in tribute to the work of Leonard Cohen were performing for just two nights only, in dear old Brighton.

United just once before
in New York, this amazing
ensemble were performing
for just two nights only,
in dear old Brighton.

And with more musical talent per square inch than you could shake a glittery stick at, an overwhelming array file onto the stage for opener ‘There Is A War’. Nick Cave, Rufus Wainwright, Laurie Anderson, The Handsome Family and a whole host of McGarrigles, Thompsons and Wainwrights all curiously related, plus late additions to the line-up Jarvis Cocker and Beth Orton, all gangly and pale and British-looking.

The stage empties, leaving Nick Cave. Backed by Cohen’s original backing singers Perla Batalla and Julia Christensen, Cave is lean and concise, his booming baritone and musical director Steve Bernstein’s brassy trombone turning ‘I’m Your Man’ into a jubilant New Orleans wake. Every time Cave returns during the evening he’s greeted by raucous cheers and there’s a palpable air of excitement. For ‘Diamonds In The Mine’ he's backed by a female quintet that includes Beth Orton and The Handsome Family’s Rennie Sparks. It gets the full Nick Cave flailing-legged wrathful preacherman treatment and the crowd go nuts. Later, in contrast, he performs a mellow, contained yet darkly tender ‘Suzanne’.

Cave gives it the full-on
wrathful preacherman
treatment and the crowd
go nuts.

These are interpretations and musical matchings you couldn’t conjure up in your giddiest dreams. Laurie Anderson with trademark electric violin performs a literally breathtaking rendition of ‘The Guests’, and Beth Orton delivers a haunting ‘Stories of the Street’, before hooking up with Jarvis Cocker to duet on ‘Death of a Ladies Man’. More latterly known as Darren Spooner of two-piece Relaxed Muscle, Cocker still has the familiar wrist-flicks and delivery of his Pulp heyday, but seems to have matured into a singer of considerable stature. In the second half Orton gives a stunning rendition of ‘The Sisters of Mercy’, her voice quavering and warm, and the crowd are perfectly still, as if fearful of breaking the spell.

There’s a sense that we’re witnessing something unique and extraordinary with each new performance. Onstage throughout, Julia Christensen and Perla Batalla soon emerge as the show’s unofficial hosts. Christensen delivers a superbly caustic solo ‘A Singer Must Die’ and Batalla captures the anti-war undercurrent of the evening in ‘Ring the Bells’.

There’s a sense that
we’re witnessing something
unique and extraordinary
with each new performance.

The Handsome Family perform a moving ‘Thousand Kisses Deep’, and later ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ and ‘Ballad of the Absent Mare’ (“a song about a boy with a whip and a woman with a saddle"), before declaring “We’re gonna bring the white trash to the party!" and launching into ‘Heart With No Companion’ - performed as a square dance. Brett’s voice is unfeasibly deep, as if sung from a bottomless well.

Cave and Brett Sparks’ baritones are well-suited to Cohen’s songs, but it’s equally exciting to hear his lyrics with a female voice, or as duets or ensembles, or indeed as a square dance. There’s an overall Americana feel to the evening rather than the gloomy melancholy you might expect, though the likes of Cave and The Handsome Family retain a healthily dark edge.

Rufus Wainwright steals the show. Ridiculously handsome in the flesh and mischievously camp, he dedicates ‘Everybody Knows’ to Doris Day, and grins cheekily when singing the lyric “giving me head on an unmade bed" during ‘Chelsea Hotel No.2’. But it’s ‘Hallelujah’ that’s his finest moment. Seated at the piano with his back to the audience, he gives a beautifully understated and spellbinding performance.

Ridiculously handsome
and mischievously
camp, Rufus Wainwright
dedicates 'Everybody
Knows' to Doris Day.

For the finale a barefoot Wainwright cries “Let’s sing a dirty song!". Flanked by Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker and Teddy Thompson and backed by the entire cast they perform ‘Don’t Go Home With Your Hard-On’, a sentiment many of REALBrighton's readers may concur with:

“I've looked behind all of the faces
That smile you down to your knees
And the lips that say, come on, taste us
And when you try to they make you say please
Ah but don't go home with your hard-on
It will only drive you insane".

There is rapturous applause that bleeds into a standing ovation. They cannot be swayed for an encore, but hey, they’ve given us three and a half hours... A truly grand finale to the Brighton Festival.

(Incidentally, Cohen himself is still going strong - he’s been living as a Zen monk called Jikan and working on a new album).

about Brighton Dome

Originally the riding stables and school of the Prince of Wales in the early 19th Century, the Brighton Dome is one of the most beautiful centres of art in the country. Brighton Dome is made up of the Concert Hall with a theatre-style capacity of 1800, the Corn Exchange with a flexible capacity of up to 1200, and the black-box studio-style Pavilion Theatre for up to 320l The next Brighton Dome date for your diary: Saturday, 11th - Sunday, 12th October Dylan Moran - What It Is @ Concert Hall (Brighton Dome) (Magners Paramount Comedy Festival) Click for more info and complete listings for Brighton Dome