-= Frank Black Forum =- - Temple Bar, Dublin review

-= Frank Black Forum =-

Username:	Password:
Save Password
Forgot your Password?

All Forums

Frank Black Chat

Frank Black Making Noise

Temple Bar, Dublin review

New Topic

Topic Locked

Printer Friendly

Author

Topic

Ten Percenter
- FB Enquirer -

United Kingdom
1733 Posts

Posted - 07/22/2003 : 01:39:21

Nick Kelly gave Frank's Dublin gig 4 stars (out of 5). Apologies if this has already been posted elsewhere:

Frank Black
By Nick Kelly
Pop
Temple Bar, Dublin

IT’S hard to calculate how influential Frank Black has been. With the Pixies, he made two of the greatest albums of all time in Surfer Rosa and Doolittle; Kurt Cobain admitted that he ripped him off for Smells Like Teen Spirit, as did a thousand other grunge and nu-metal bands since, while even David Bowie covered the Pixies song Cactus on his last album. And clapping excitedly on the balcony tonight in the Music Centre is Bono. . .
Yet Frank Black almost didn’t make it to Dublin after the morning ferry was cancelled, but he arrived in the nick of time to put on a stunning show. It included a generous portion of Pixies classics that elicited a euphoric response from the capacity crowd.

This solo acoustic show was part of an impromptu jig around Europe to coincide with a promotional tour for his forthcoming album with his band the Catholics, Show Me Your Tears, due early next month on Cooking Vinyl.

If the minimalist nature of the show meant that there was no reprise of the manic moshing that used to accompany Pixies gigs, Black was still a long way from busker mode. Those beefy power chords still had a real oomph, while his famous gnarl of a voice can still startle the wild cats in the street.

Kicking off with the old Pixies single Velouria, Black eased his way into the show with a selection of crowd-pleasers, such as Mr Grieves and The Holiday Song, while I Want Live on an Abstract Plain represented the best of an uneven solo career that seems to be back on track with the new record. Goodbye Lorraine, for instance, has a yearning, melancholy quality that seems to have its roots more in the country and folk traditions than in what was once called indie rock. Other new songs such as New House of the Pope suggest that Black hasn’t lost his knack for the quirky, memorable image, even if these no longer refer to visiting aliens or the exotic occupants of interplanetary craft.

Indeed, Black has never been one to take himself seriously. Monkey Gone to Heaven had the whole venue screaming that immortal line about the devil being six and God being seven.

A compelling Wave of Mutilation closed the show before an encore of oldies such as Headache and a surprise rendition of Ewan MacColl’s classic ode to Dublin, Dirty Old Town, left the audience unwilling to go home until Black came back. Which he eventually did for a rousing Nimrod’s Son and Tom Waits’s The Black Rider.

No man is an island, unless he is in the bath

Broken Face
-= Forum Pistolero =-

USA
5155 Posts

Posted - 07/22/2003 : 06:27:21

i NEED to hear a solo acoustic velouria

-brian

Cult_Of_Frank
= Black Noise Maker =

Canada
11687 Posts

Posted - 07/22/2003 : 07:36:56

Yes, I can no longer take the waiting. I'd love to be in Europe right about now...

Brackish Girl
~ Soul Eater ~

Ireland
1750 Posts

Posted - 07/24/2003 : 14:37:05

i'm telling you, frank is copying the weezer version...i don't understand why though, i hate the weezer version.

bored of the little comments. i guess i'll just have an actual signature. much shorter.
-Jessie

guy_nolan
= Cult of Ray =