Grinderman at Vicar Street , 19th June
Reviewer: Steve Coyle
Photos: Natalie Byrne
The support act for the night was Thread Pulls. After hearing a few of their tracks before the gig I was hoping for a good show…unfortunately this is not what I got. The singer/front man alone was enough to put me off, with his various array of yelps and screeches laced in delay and reverb, it was just far too distracting. Although some of their musical ideas had potential, certainly the almost tribal drumbeats were consistent throughout the set and at times when the bass guitar was played with the drums it sounded like something good could come from it, but it ended in disappointment.
After the 20 minute interval I was quite happy to see the familiar face of Nick Cave and the rest of Grinderman as they walked out on stage, the crowd greeting them warmly. The stage was simply laid out, just a red backdrop. They kicked off the set with their new single “Mickey Mouse and the Goodbye Man”. The song was full of energy, Cave in particular really exerting himself. With its heavy blues rock riffs and thundering drums matched with Caves powerful vocals, it was a great opener. In no time Cave was close to the crowd lending them the mic to sing certain lines. The vivacious performance continued through to the next few Grinderman songs, including “Worm Tamer” and “Heathen Child”.
The band began to lose their flow about halfway through their set, having to start a song a second time due to Cave missing his cue. It seems to me that Cave wasn’t 100% on his game, which up until that point didn’t seem to affect his performance. However after that point cracks began to show. Cave and lead guitarist/electric bouzouki player Warren Ellis both displaying a few flaws in their performance. The bassist and drummer proved to be the backbone to the band, keeping everything in check throughout. Ellis at times was too busy “freaking out” on stage to realise what exactly he was doing, but he was so entertaining to watch that I don’t think anyone really cared. However when the energy began to waver everything came off a bit flat for me. The encore proved this, it seemed like a tired performance to me. Their last song “Grinderman” did redeem the performance somewhat.
Anytime you see Nick Cave / Grinderman live you know it’s going to be an interesting experience. Despite the fact that in this instance the musicianship seemed a little messy at times and the energy levels of the performance fluctuated, it was still a very good gig!
(NOTE – Apologies we have amended an error where our reviewer believed the guitarist for Grinderman was Martyn Casey when in fact it is Warren Ellis)