Thomas Dolby – Academy 2, Birmingham
Posted on 09. Oct, 2007 by DocDelete in Music
Accompanied Jez, The Baron and Lady Baron to the Academy 2 last night, and met RussL briefly (who’d valiantly retraced his journey due to a forgotten ticket). We’d gone to see a certain Mr Dolby on the Brum leg of his UK tour. As noted by Jez, there were a heckuva lot of chaps in the queue sporting smoking blazers, bald patches and practised stoops. I guess that goes with the territory when you’re off to visit an artiste who’s been active from around the late 70s.
By going I was attending to a part of my personality formed in my teens. If I’ve got one thing to say to Thomas it’s that he was probably responsible for me getting some good beatings at school: when my peers at a Scottish secondary school were sporting white socks, drainpipe trousers and donkey-jackets, I was garbed in a smoking jacket, waistcoat and baggy flannels, oh, and the round specs. Thanks Tom, no really, it didn’t hurt at all – I could’ve conformed but I decided to stay a RetroNerd against all odds ;)
I’ve not witnessed much live music in recent years, but clearly the days of leaving a venue with ringing ears are gone to a certain extent? I guess the more accessible venues are strictly governed by health and safety legislation. Volume was good, the bass was deep but the lighting rig in the room had trouble dealing with some frequencies, and resonated quite badly.
The music? Well, I’m a fan so I loved every minute. It was interesting to hear him build up the loop layers, presumably rendering them subtly different with every performance. When your music relies on electronics it’s good to see performers at least trying to inject some craft back into the live set. It’s certainly not a new technique, and indeed stems from very early electronic music performances, but it does set apart the musicians from the karaoke brigade.
Like many in the audience I feel he could’ve spun out a few more tracks from The Golden Age of Wireless, but instead he decided to play the crowd with more funked up stuff from Aliens Ate My Buick. The encore of May The Cube Be With You was infinitely better live than on vinyl: it’s a track I’ve never really enjoyed, like Bowie had the Modern Love album, Thomas Dolby had the Cube EP. Finally, Hot Sauce was as squirmy and dirty as the lyrics demanded. Nice.
A suitably quirky and intelligent performance, solid groundwork for the promise of a new album next year and another tour.
I had the bonus of being ‘razzled’ by a hoodie on the way to the choochoo station, who ran up behind me and advised me several times to ‘never look back man’, daring me to start something I’d hazard. In situations like this I’m quite a low-reactor, and I think my lack of response started to make him more agitated, but fortunately my purposeful gait won the day and he opted not to follow me into the station. What a tool.
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