As festival season slowly begins to wind down, Melbourne’s music-loving community seems to be lapping up the constant array of sideshows on offer. Whether you blame these constant tours on dwindling record sales due to ‘the digital age’ or not, it’s the public who benefit.
In town for Golden Plains, Jamie Lidell is something of a musical chameleon. The English born singer who constantly blurs the lines between electro, pop, soul, funk, motown and hip-hop was to treat us to a very special show this evening.
Storming the stage wearing a customised black and gold jacket with flashing neon heart inside, Jamie is one of the most erratic and energetic performers I’ve seen bless the stage. His enthusiasm and passion for performing hit you like a wave of energy. Here’s a quote from his press release that is absolutely spot on:
‘Jamie Lidell IS a musical instrument, he IS kinetic energy, he goes OFF like a thing that goes off a lot and quickly and stays off a long time. Off and twitching. Off and glitching.’
Jamie’s shows are always evolving, whether he plays solo with the help of an arsenal of sampling, looping and effects gadgets or if he plays with a live band, his reputation has grown to the point that he commands extremely high expectations. On this particular tour, Jamie has combined these elements to form a three-piece outfit (keyboards, drums, and Jamie on gadgets/vocals) that captures and compliments his sound perfectly. Even if his balding, beer-gutted keyboardist insists on taking his shirt off. And leaving it off…
Treating us to a broad range of his material, he performed for what felt like hours. After getting through the first half of his set, which included tracks from past albums Jim and Multiply, Jamie said goodbye to the band and performed intimate and unique solo versions of ‘You Got Me Up’ and ‘The City’ (seen here in all of its distorted glory, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS-VIbp1dCg, courtesy of my mobile) only to bring the band back on and soldier on through another 40 minutes worth of material.
The set started like a firecracker, continued like dynamite, and concluded like the big bang. Even when performing slower, more heartfelt songs such as the title track from his latest release Compass, Jamie put so much energy into his vocal performance that it was impossible not to lose your stamina just watching and listening to the man.
Standout tracks such as ‘I Wanna Be Your Telephone’ and ‘When I Come Back Around’ tested the audience’s endurance towards the end of the set, while encore track ‘Multiply’ tested vocal ability as Jamie not only encouraged, but nearly demanded the audience’s participation. This can go one of two ways, fortunately there was enough soul in the air to go around, seeing the whole audience singing in harmony, backing up the vocal acrobatics happening onstage.
If Sam Cooke, Jamiroquai and Prince were ever able to get freaky and create offspring, they would have named it Jamie. Jamie Lidell.
– Nigel Moyes
