Mark Lanegan at The Academy – August 25th
Review by : Aidan McCooey
Photos by Alessio Michelini
This was the second time in 4 months that Mark Lanegan has played the Academy and I wasn’t sure what to expect from the man himself or from the crowd, however I was not left disappointed.
The night started out with Jim McKee playing his first Dublin gig with his blend of acoustic folk rock accompanied by a cello. Jim took to the stage with the venue starting to fill up and as soon as he cracked into his first song, Homeless Piano Man, you could hear conversations amongst the crowd stop and all eyes turn to the stage. Over the course of his set of 6 songs Jim was tight and played with a laid back confidence and at the end of his show he was greeted with a good response from the crowd for what was, in my opinion, a very good and entertaining set.
The nights second act was Monaghan man Ryan Sheridan playing acoustic accompanied with percussionist Artur Graczyk. Ryan, who has played festivals such as Benacassim and Oxegen this summer, played a fast tempo energetic set. There was one or two songs where I could hear an almost Unkle Never Never Land sound to his music, almost acoustic trip hop at times. Ryan has been getting some good reviews of late and his song, Jigsaw, has been doing the rounds on the radio. Ryan had a good rapport with the crowd cracking a few jokes and the crowd seemed to respond positively to him and his music.
On to the nights main event, one Mr Mark Lanegan. There was quite a buzz of anticipation in the crowd prior to Lanegan taking the stage with people wondering what songs he may play. The crowd seemed to be made up of mainly big fans and with a jam packed venue this promised to be a good gig. When the moment arrived for the show to start Lanegan just calmly saunters onto the stage with guitarist Dave Rosser who had an electric guitar this time and not an acoustic as was the case in April.
The early part of the set consisted mainly of songs from his 2001 album Field Songs such as One Way Street and No Easy Action. The song Little Willie John received a strong reaction from the crowd who at this point were completely entranced by Mark and his voice. A venue such as the Academy really complements an artist such as Lanegan as the sound, acoustics and intimacy of the venue really made this a great show.
There was quite a long encore to the show. After I think it may have been 40 or 45 minutes Mark and Dave left the stage signaling the encore was coming up and when they returned they treated the crowd to 6 more songs. Half the encore consisted of Screaming Tree songs such as Halo of Ashes, Traveller and Shadow of the Season with the highlight and one of the biggest crowd responses of the night being for Hanging Tree, the song he collaborated with Queens of the Stone Age for their Songs for the Deaf album.
All in all it was a great gig by a fantastic artist, the only thing a lot of people were commenting on was the lack of a band. There was one or two songs where a full band was missed but the intimacy brought to the show with just guitar and vocals really made it a memorable night.
