On Saturday, I ventured into Bristol to see The Clientele play the final night of their tour. As I ended 2023 at the Thekla, watching Jah Wobble & The Invaders Of The Heart, I was back in the bowels of the boat for my first gig of 2024, and it was another memorable night.
The photos, by the way, aren't mine. They were taken by the very talented (and well positioned) Brain, Heart & Eyes aka @egyptianreggae. They tweeted (yes Elon, tweeted) that Saturday night was "Honestly one of the best gigs [they'd] ever been to" and I have to agree. Brain, Heart & Eyes also managed to snag and snap a signed setlist, annotated with the additional songs played at two - count 'em, two - encores. More of that later.
The photos of James Hornsey, Mark Keen and Alasdair MacLean are great, aren't they? Much better than my effort as evidenced here, some way back and to the left of the stage, slightly shorter than several audience members in front of me.
What's that you say? This looks nothing like James, Mark and Alasdair? Ah, that's because it's not. This trio of troubadours are Bristol-based quintet Ead Wood.
What that you say? If Ead Wood are a quintet, why are there only three of them on stage? Well, turns out they were a last-minute support slot replacement and only three of them could make it to the Thekla for the gig.
What that meant was a lovely, stripped back 30-minute set by Ed Soles (vocals, guitar, writes the songs), Pete Woollaston (lead guitar) and Rob Fenner (pedal steel guitar). You can get a taste of the music on Bandcamp, as I did a couple of hours before the gig.
As it happens, I didn't recognise any of the songs but it didn't matter. Ed introduced one song as "Menu" then corrected it as "Me And You". Another was called "Cash Mountain", the working title for TV show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? Ed packed a ton of amusing asides and facts into the between song banter but actually, the (West) Country-infused music spoke for itself: twangy, tuneful and making me think of wide open spaces rather than the windowless confines of a former cargo ship. Ead Wood were great and I'd love to see the full band in action in future.
A last minute addition Ead Wood may have been, yet they were a fortuitous complement to the sound of the headline act. I first heard The Clientele in the late 2000s, when my friend John sent a bunch of albums my way, included Strange Geometry, their second from 2005.
The album immediately reminded me of The Byrds, not least a passing comparison between Alasdair MacLean and Roger McGuinn's voices and the beautifully melodic guitar work that underpins their music. Yet, the songs on Strange Geometry often fought against and broke free of the initially familliar forms and structures, going somewhere strange and unexpected, occasionally circling back towards the end. I loved it.
That said, I've not followed The Clientele much in the subsequent years. I went back for debut album The Violet Hour from 2003 and Suburban Light, the collection of assorted B-sides and one-offs that preceded it in 2000. However, I only acquired the odd track here and there from the later albums.
Despite this, I actually bought a ticket for The Clientele's gig before buying and listening to 2023's eighth album I Am Not There Anymore, or releasing that it was their first since 2017. Something told me before I'd heard a note of new music that I would want to be there on Saturday night.
The album is a maturation of The Clientele's music, rather than a quantum leap in style or genre. Five songs from I Am Not There Anymore were played on Saturday night, opening with Claire's Not Real, track 1 disc 2 of the double vinyl, with the rest scattered amongst the set list, with Blue Over Blue reserved as a guaranteed encore. The new songs sit comfortably with the older material, another 5 coming from Suburban Light including B-side Rain (aka "Monday's Rain") which according to James Hornsey, the band were playing live for the first time ever.
Since K Got Over Me, which sadly isn't really about me as we hadn't met until this gig, was played second and a real crowd pleaser though it's fair to say that every song got an enthusiastic response. Clearly a large proportion of the audience knew the songs, including the latest...which in fairness, has been out for several months, it's only me that got it late in the day.
This was also reflected in the, what I can best describe as the respectful quiet from the audience when the songs were being performed. The Clientele's music is deceptively complex; notwithstanding the three-person set up on stage, stripping the lush string arrangements of the studio versions. At one point, Alasdair joked that this was the first gig where he could actually hear the amp when tuning up!
But what it meant for the audience was a full immersion in the beautiful playing from all three members. I've read a fair bit about Alasdair's vocal stylings and Spanish guitar-inspired melodies and solos. Much is made (quite rightly) of Mark's delicate percussion and keyboard work, anchoring the songs but sitting quite low in the mix (no mean feat in a live setting, too). I've seen and read less about James' bass playing yet it's another critical element to The Clientele's sound and something to behold on the night. James and Mark left the banter such as it was to Alasdair and let their playing do the talking. And it was wonderful to see and hear, it really was.
I would have been very happy to hear E.M.P.T.Y., from Strange Geometry, but I would not have wanted to swap out any of the songs in the set. After about an hour, the band said thanks and farewell and left the stage, returning a minute or so later to perform another three songs, including a cover of Television Personalities' A Picture Of Dorian Gray.
Alisdair, James and Mark then left again, only to return another few minutes later to genuine delight and surprise. "I didn't think we were going to be called back again," Alasdair joked, "I'd started to run a bath!"
They played another of their "greatest hits", the wonderful (I Can't Seem To) Make You Mine and, as the audience appreciation was showing no signs of subsiding, asked if we wanted one more. Of course we did!
"We weren't expecting this," Alasdair said. "We don't have another song ready. Do you have any suggestions?"
After a few call outs, the band settled on Five Day Morning, the B-side of their very first single in 1998. A few "fuck ups" (as Alasdair put it) and fluffed lines meant nothing; this was something truly special and I found it hard to believe as they left the stage for a third and final time, that The Clientele had just played seventeen songs. It was all over too soon.
Thankfully, as mentioned above, Brain, Heart & Eyes managed to obtain and post the setlist on social media, so I have taken the liberty of recreating The Clientele's show for your listening pleasure.
As I only have three of the albums, which covers 13 of the songs performed, I've drawn on The Clientele's KEXP session in 2017 which conveniently accounts for 3 more songs. The last one - their cover of Television Personalities - is ripped from their concert in Paris on 1st October 2023.
As well as highlighting that, had I bought it sooner, I Am Not There Anymore would have been prominent in my 2023 favourites list Saturday night's gig has also set a very high bar for gigs in 2024. A fantastic night.
1) Claire's Not Real (2023)
2) Since K Got Over Me (2005)
3) Garden Eye Mantra (2023)
4) We Could Walk Together (2000)
5) Chalk Flowers (2023)
6) Lady Grey (2023)
7) Everyone You Meet (Live On KEXP) (2017)
8) Reflections After Jane (1999)
9) Joseph Cornell (2000)
10) Bonfires On The Heath (Live On KEXP) (2017)
11) Lamplight (2003)
12) The Age Of Miracles (Live On KEXP) (2017)
Encore #1
13) Blue Over Blue (2023)
14) Rain (1999)
15) A Picture of Dorian Gray (Live @ Petit Bain, Paris) (Cover of Television Personalities) (2023)
Encore #2
16) (I Can't Seem To) Make You Mine (2005)
17) Five Day Morning (1998)
You're not really over them, are you?
ReplyDeleteIs it that obvious, Ernie?
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