Friday, November 20, 2009

Concert Review: Mark Kozelek - Andrews Lane, Dublin, July 2009


Catching up with my concert reviews again! We had previously seen Mark Kozelek last year with his wonderful band Sun Kil Moon. It was a full band show, the sound was wonderful and the band evoked Crazy Horse in their prime with long drawn-out indulgent numbers.

This time it was just Kozelek solo, with a guitar. Anybody who's seen him before knew what to expect, and he was no different this time. He treated us to solo versions of mainly Sun Kil Moon songs (Blue Orchids in particular being a highpoint), while staying away for the most part from Red House Painters songs, barring one or two of their less celebrated songs. His voice as usual was treated with masses of reverb, which was disconcerting for a few first-timers I ran into.

He played a couple of new songs which were met with rapturous applause, after which he said "it wasn't THAT good". His between song chatter was, as usual, dripping with attitude. It's as if he has to be like that otherwise people would mistake him for a sensitive soul considering how emotive many of his songs can be. He also found time to pay tribute to Michael Jackson, playing I'll Be There in his own inimitable style, where he takes a song and transforms it into his own acoustic style.

Enjoyable, though not for the uninitiated.

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