Lloyd Cole, Sky City Theatre: 29 November 2019 Concert Review

Lloyd Cole brought his 6-city “From Rattlesnakes to Guesswork Tour,” featuring The Commotions guitarist Neil Clark, to Auckland’s Sky City Theatre last night. Caitlin Smith was in the audience and files this review.

The last time I saw Lloyd Cole was in solo performance at the Mercury Theatre in Newton in 2011, in promotion of his Broken Record album from 2010. I loved this album…. played it like a broken record. It referenced popular culture, aging, the pretentiousness and vacuousness of academicising creative writing in Writer’s Retreat and featuring one of his Brooklyn cohorts and friends, and my Queen, Joan Wasser. Cole is a keeper of the flame. He consistently writes great songs.

This time, at Auckland’s Skycity Theatre, he was joined by long-time collaborator and ‘Commotion’, guitarist Neil Clark for the second set. This added much colour and space for reflection. The music was sublime! But there was something else going on. Something representative of a more holistic engagement between listener and song – artist and audience.

Our relationship with music these days is no longer one of identification with ‘our tribe’ / a participatory group exercise. Rather, it separates, insulates individuals with headphones on, feeling alienated even from one another. The audience at Skycity treasured Cole’s songs as their own – ‘our songs’. Especially in the mid ‘80s, early ‘90s, Cole was prolific and provided a soundtrack to our existence. Last night wasn’t just pure associative nostalgia (as so many mega-brand bands become), it was an appreciation of what Don McGlashan called ‘a thing well made’. Cole is a master craftsman, a wordsmith and truly gifted guitarist and musician. I was especially struck by the diversity of feel, style, harmonic underpinning and song structure. There’s no sameness to content or form.

The big business of the music industry has never been interested in craft or quality. It’s just bread and circuses for the lowest common denominator. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the songwriter does their mahi. In Cole’s case rewarded by a back-catalogue of 12 albums (13 if you include the collection of b-sides and unreleased material in 2009’s Cleaning Out the Ashtrays).

For your average punter, artists like David Bowie are seen as a (for their) package: that is to say that their personality and performances eclipse a behind-the-scenes genius of Class A songwriting and musicianship. I’ve gotta put my hand up and say that Cole is a damn fine guitarist. He’s not a superstar, but slow and steady wins the race. (NB: He really is looking great for 58)

He is not a singer’s singer, but has a voice so distinctive that you’d simply need a single syllable to identify who it is. This is a rare phenomenon these days, with commercial voices being indistinguishable from one another. Not so with Cole – his wit, humour, laconic and casual delivery stands unapologetically before you. I wished that every songwriter and aspiring songwriter in Auckland was there to witness the direct exchange: offering and reception, gift and appreciation.

His latest album Guesswork was released in June this year to critical acclaim and Cole performed four tracks from it. His songwriting just gets better and better. One of the joys of being an artist is that you don’t dry up with age, you just get tastier and juicier! There’s more for you to reflect upon and refer to. In fact, one of the first remarks he made to the audience was “We’ll get one thing straight this evening… you’re not getting any younger, either”. We were on that journey with him: as our interpreter, ambassador, trailblazer. His end of the bargain: the old-school role of songwriter as a filter, philosopher, witness, lover and social commentator is upheld and honoured. He provides us with a prism through which we can have our lives held up to the light: turned, admired, reflected upon and understood.

From the get-go, 1984’s Rattlesnakes, Cole’s songs have been unabashedly high-brow, making literary references left, right and centre. I love this. Like Leonard Cohen, there is a transparency to his writing process. In Forest Fire, for example, the lyrics self-reflectively state “it’s just a simple metaphor, of a burning love”. There are many winks and nods, and we’re all happily winking and nodding at the same time like a room full of dashboard doggies.

It’s a wit that never gets nasty (a la Bob Dylan), but is always on point and contemporary. In Kids Today, for example “How can you say there is nothing wrong with kids today?
We got post-ironic ennui / Queens of The Stone Age / I love your Vivienne Westwood shirt
Why won’t you let me wear it?”. He thankfully doesn’t display the banal arrogance of a Nick Cave. More like a less fruity/sharp Oscar Wilde (if that doesn’t make me sound like too much of a wanker?)

Cole seems very comfortable onstage. This was evidenced by generously giving us a 30-song-strong performance. As stragglers entered the venue late, he repeatedly said “Good evening. If you’ve just arrived, welcome. You’ve only missed Rattlesnakes”. Actively encouraging a respectful sing-along but discouraging clapping saying “Even if you’re awesome, it’s shit. Control yourself”. He also stated that if you’ve seen a flawless performance of his music, you were probably attending a tribute band. He mooshed a couple songs together in the second set saying “Medleys are illegal, until you’re 45”.

The setlist was inclusively representative of his long career and wealth of great material.

Hey Rusty had a Ricky Lee Jones or Bruce Springsteen reference at the end (train-spotters out there, can you please remind me of what song this is?) Violins was so subtle that you weren’t sure if he was saying violence, or not. The duo returned for a two-song encore finishing with Forest Fire. As we walked out, they were playing Joan as Policewoman’s Real Life. I melted.

Cole shows no signs of slowing down, or losing his edge. In fact, of Guesswork’s release this year he posted on Facebook, “Career wise (i.e. family stuff excepted) this is the happiest I’ve been since Rattlesnakes charted at #13 in 1984 or was it #14? This record took a lot out of me. I’m happy it seems to be doing what I hoped it would do.”

Though I didn’t queue up to have my photo taken with him as I have before, I felt well-and -truly musically slaked. What a charming man and what a wonderful night.

Caitlin Smith – www.caitlinsmith.com

Click any image below to view a full gallery of photos of the show from Veronica McLaughlin Photography.

Setlist

1. Past Imperfect,  Past Imperfect (The Negatives)
2. Kids Today, Standards
3. Rattlesnakes, Rattlesnakes
4. Music in a Foreign Language, Music in a Foreign Language
5. My Bag, Mainstream
6. The Afterlife, Guesswork
7. Moments and Whatnot, Guesswork
8. Baby, Love Story
9. Vin Ordinaire Folksinger, (Vol 2: The Whelan)
10. Late night, Early Town, Music in a Foreign Language

– INTERVAL –

1. Are You Ready to be Heartbroken? Rattlesnakes
2. Women’s Studies, Standards
3. Charlotte Street, Rattlesnakes
4. Sentimental Fool, Love Story
5. Why I love Country Music, Easy Pieces
6. Like a Broken Record, Broken Record
7. Weeping Wine, Don’t get weird on me Babe
8. Jennifer She Said, Mainstream
9. 2CV, Rattlesnakes
10. Period Piece, Standards
11. Woman in a Bar, Antidepressant
12. Ice Cream Girl, Lloyd Cole
13. Myrtle and Rose, Standards
14. Nights Sweats, Guesswork
15. Violins, Guesswork
16. Hey Rusty, Mainstream
17. Perfect Skin, Rattlesnakes
18. Lost Weekend, Easy Pieces
19. No Blue Skies, Lloyd Cole
20. Forest Fire, Rattlesnakes

Discography
Rattlesnakes 1984
Easy Pieces 1985
Mainstream 1987
Lloyd Cole 1990
Don’t get Weird on Me Babe 1991
Bad Vibes 1993
Love Story 1995
Music in a Foreign Language 2003
Antidepressant 2006
Cleaning out the Ashtrays 2009
Broken Record 2010
Standards 2013
Guesswork 2019