Dead Can Dance – The Gig

(NOTE : Photos will follow, probably tonight or tomorrow – they’re at home and I didn’t get a chance to crop them etc. yet)

It’s been a fair while since I’ve seen Dead Can Dance – the last time I saw Lisa Gerrard was about seven years ago (in fact, having looked at the album‘s release date, it was probably nine years ago) and it must be back in the early ’90s when I saw DCD. Ye Gods that makes me feel old.

So last night was always going to be a bit special – and it was the last night of the european section of their tour. The Forum has always been a bit of a sweatbox, and last night hasn’t changed my opinion of it – the place was heaving. And sweating. For some reason a huge percentage of the audience was apparently from Scandinavia – no idea why, but there we go. Movement was difficult, it was so busy – for the most part I just stayed in one place, against the wall of the sound-desk and got battered by people shoving past. I wish I knew what it is about people that makes them keep going for drinks, bogs, whatever while the act they’ve paid at least (in this case) £20 per ticket to see is on stage. Or, even more annoying, keep talking to their mates while the main act’s on. It’s fucking annoying – if you want to talk, fuck off. If you want to see the gig, stay. Just don’t do both – because your “talking” is at such a volume that the people all around can hear you too, you self-obsessed spaff-wit tossburger.

This trait is particularly noticeable during a gig like tonights, where the main act isn’t a wall-of-noise type band, and in fact a lot of their stuff is surprisingly delicate. Bass-heavy as chuff in a lot of cases, but not all. In fact, Lisa Gerrard did perform some of her solo-voice almost madrigally operatic stuff, which is truly impressive. By my reckoning her voice covers about five or six octaves – sometimes in one lyric. The only person I’ve seen with a greater range is Diamanda Galas, and she’s just scary. But that’s something for another day.

The gig was excellent – as expected, they performed a lot of their more well-known stuff, with “The Ubiquitous Mr LoveGrove” getting an ovation from the first beat, along with several others. They commanded the Forum amazingly well, especially considering that they hardly said twenty words to the audience all night. A definite presence, but not a personality, if that makes any sense at all.

Unfortunately my MP3 recorder failed utterly to capture the gig decently – if I’m going to attempt that again, I think I’ll need to sort out a proper microphone, or start getting to know people on the sound-desks. The photos came out pretty well – it was a very dimly-lit stage, yet I seem to have finally sussed out the right shutter speed (about 1/25th of a second, if you’re interested) that stops the people being too blurred, but also stops the shots from being too dark. Hell, it’s only taken me a year to sort out.

All things considered, it was a brilliant concert – but I can’t deny, I was glad to get out of the Forum and into the cool night to go home too. Fresh air – even London Fresh – was a joy after that crowd.