Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan ABC, Glasgow 8/9/10
2/5
By: Rachel Bolland
I’ll be honest, the main reason I suggested to my father that we go and see Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan was because I knew he was a fan and just thought it would be something nice for us to do together. I’d also heard their albums and was really quite taken with them and figured that a gig by an ex-Belle and Sebastian member and someone who was briefly in Queens of the Stone Age really couldn’t be that bad.
I was wrong. As my dad said, it was one of the ‘laziest gigs’ I’ve ever had the displeasure of attending. For one thing, Lanegan read the majority of his lyrics from a music stand, giving the impression that he didn’t care enough about this side project to bother learning the words to the songs. Mainly focussing around material from their most recent, and really very credible LP Hawk, the whole gig felt unrehearsed, uncomfortable and sloppy. Indeed, Campbell admitted that they had only practised for ‘days’ to get ready for the gig, which was presumably meant to be somewhat of a homecoming for the ex Belle and Sebastian cellist. The only point that the gig seemed vaguely together was when the pair returned to material from their earlier albums, which was mainly because Lanegan wasn’t reading his lyrics off a sheet.
Despite the sloppiness of the frontmen, the gig did serve to highlight Campbell’s songwriting talents. On record, Hawk is a fantastic album, as are its predecessors, and some tracks, like ‘Come Undone’, a wonderful, Nina Simone-esque Blues ballad, were portrayed beautifully, the gorgeous contrast of Campbell and Lanegan’s vocals used to full effect. And credit has to go to their backing band who put in a seamless performance, it’s just a shame that their singers were so lacking in professionalism. At one point surprise support act Willy Mason took over Lanegan’s duties and seemed to turn the gig in to more of a show. Unfortunately, Campbell took this as an opportunity to fall apart completely having to restart a song about a minute in (not an isolated incident) and descending in to giggles.
It’s difficult to see why Isobel Campbell, an obviously talented songwriter and singer, chooses to collaborate with someone who seems so emotionally uninvested in what she’s created. If reports are to be believed she spends the best part of two years writing and arranging the albums with Lanegan rocking up for a few days to record his parts. Although, she’s not entirely blameless, it was Lanegan’s apparent boredom that made it feel more like watching someone’s rehearsal than a bona fide performance. The whole thing felt like a contractual obligation, a gig that they had to do to get the album out. It just didn’t seem like either of them wanted to be there and asking fans to pay £16 to watch them give a half-arsed performance, quite frankly, seems to be taking the piss.
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Sunrise
Artists in this article: Isobel Campbell, Mark Lanegan Band
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