Patrick Wolf
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- Patrick Wolf - 2011-11-19 (Concerts)
- M'era Luna 2011 - 2011-08-19 (Festivals)
To provide a record of events in the timeline, I must begin with flicking the organizers noses a bit. The concert was planned to start at 8 p.m. According to the information on the web, gates open at 7 p.m. So when I came to Firlej club at about 7:30, I couldn’t believe my eyes when I was still at a distance. The whole porch was filled with a crowd, several people were standing outside. Well, I’ve heard that Patrick Wolf is now exceedingly popular and his last concert in Poland was enthusiastically received, ale but of such concern? Scouting around for a while I’ve discovered that a small gate leading towards the steps inside was still closed and it remained so almost until 8:00. Crushing in the crowd holding my breath (due to unpleasant November's weather, most people chose this option preferring not to wait outside) I subjected myself to somewhat common irritation. There was another obstacle on the way to enter the club, a narrow counter in the cloakroom being served by a single person only. Having all those adversities in mind, it was quite a success that the supporting project managed to begin the performance with just a short delay.
Few minutes after 8 o’clock a slender brunette appeared on stage from among dim lights, with her exotically beautiful face hidden behind massive sunglasses. A man next to her was later introduced to us as Rob Thompson. I didn’t have any precise musical expectations when it comes to the support, however, I must admit they were quite a surprise. The music itself was rather monotonous. Melodies seemed to be taken away straight from an old cinema, unwinding slowly, oozing out tone after tone indolently, carelessly, with no fireworks or sudden turnabouts. They rather set a sort of background, not an individual part of the performance. I had an impression that they were meant to make an atmosphere and incline the audience into it. I felt they were lacking muted hums and crashes so typical for vinyl records. I assume that this kind of magic not necessarily had to enchant everyone, but it worked with me. To me the core of this concert was unbelievable vocals. An inconspicuous petite woman was emitting voice of hypnotizing and absolutely surprising timbre - soft, warm and expressively low-pitched. At the very first moment it made me think of long time no hear vocal of Tanita Tikaram. Perhaps it is not an ideal comparison but it’s the only one that comes to my mind. Chinawoman finished her show very soon. It lasted no longer than half an hour. That was one of the reasons (not the only one) why she left me with a slight feeling of insufficiency.
When Patrick Wolf appeared on stage he was welcomed truly enthusiastic, not to say hysterical. I had already been in Firlej at a few concerts, but I’d never seen such turnout yet. The famous British multiinstrumentalist appeared accompanied by a drummer, saxophonist and a violinist. At this very moment I stopped being objective. I simply love violin and since the first parts I let myself be overwhelmed by mass madness. The sax also coped well. I can vividly remember its characteristic parts in "The City". The vocalist himself reached several times for various instruments during the show, starting from harps, through violin and keyboards.
Patrick Wolf is famous for combining modern electronic tunes with sound of traditional instruments. He makes unusually harmonious, ear-catching and heart-touching melodies. In Firlej he presented full spectrum of his musical abilities, together with variety of his interests and compositions of his output. The show was obviously dominated by "Lupercalia"- the latest album being the promotional reason of the whole tour. We could also hear some of the older well-known tracks such as "The Magic Position", or "Damaris". Changes of the tempo and the mood of particular pieces were successfully saving us from feelings of monotony during nearly 2-hour show. The setlist included typically pop songs, dynamic, energetic, based on electronics, which made the crowd move like Together, The City, or Time of my Life, as well as stricte instrumental pieces, melancholic, concentrated on expressing deep vulnerability and much personal emotions, like "The Pigeons".
Patrick himself made a very positive impression, not only regarding his masterful virtuosity of play, soulful, warm vocal with unusually soft tembre, but also because of fantastic contact with the audience. The young Britishman was changing his image on stage as often as the mood of the performance was. During the first song he came onto the stage in an all-embracing black cloak, wearing a tie and a jacket with golden trimming, with neat hairstyle – he seemed to be a bit uptight. In the course of time the atmosphere was definitely warming up, the jacket gave up its place to a black and white shirt at first, and then to a sweatshirt with golden sequins, the tie ended up round the head. When the artist’s fringe was getting more and more out of control, he was at the same time unwinding on stage. He created amazingly pleasant warm atmosphere introducing each song with a few words, describing circumstances of their creation or stories connected with them with associated emotions of the author.
The audience prepared a little surprise for their idol. During one the tracks they made a cloud of soap bubbles heading for the stage, making an extra magical element to this slightly surrealistic atmosphere. The British performer wanted to thank his polish fans for making such numerous audience, took up a great gauntlet. Usually western artists do not surprise us with anything more than particular names of cities or certain words in our language during their shows. But Patrick Wolf set himself a far more breakneck goal. As far as the word "kocham (I love)" seems to be quite easy to utter even for a foreigner, the second element of the phrase – "wszystkich (all of you)"- appeared to be much more troublesome. In the end, to great delight of "all of us" gathered there, he made it.
Even though it was the middle of the week, and the time of day was not so early, so a working person had full right to already complain about serious symptoms of tiredness, I left outside from Patrick Wolf’s concert full of enthusiasm and positive energy, humming the most catchy melodies under my breath. Once again I’d like to mark the great importance of traditional instruments in each of the compositions. Contemporary music is so much dominated by electronics that we rarely have a chance to experience something similar. Thanks to cohesive combination of sounds, lights and colours, the whole show made a complete happening, very romantic and magical, having a positive effect on our senses and emotions.
Other articles:
Few minutes after 8 o’clock a slender brunette appeared on stage from among dim lights, with her exotically beautiful face hidden behind massive sunglasses. A man next to her was later introduced to us as Rob Thompson. I didn’t have any precise musical expectations when it comes to the support, however, I must admit they were quite a surprise. The music itself was rather monotonous. Melodies seemed to be taken away straight from an old cinema, unwinding slowly, oozing out tone after tone indolently, carelessly, with no fireworks or sudden turnabouts. They rather set a sort of background, not an individual part of the performance. I had an impression that they were meant to make an atmosphere and incline the audience into it. I felt they were lacking muted hums and crashes so typical for vinyl records. I assume that this kind of magic not necessarily had to enchant everyone, but it worked with me. To me the core of this concert was unbelievable vocals. An inconspicuous petite woman was emitting voice of hypnotizing and absolutely surprising timbre - soft, warm and expressively low-pitched. At the very first moment it made me think of long time no hear vocal of Tanita Tikaram. Perhaps it is not an ideal comparison but it’s the only one that comes to my mind. Chinawoman finished her show very soon. It lasted no longer than half an hour. That was one of the reasons (not the only one) why she left me with a slight feeling of insufficiency.
When Patrick Wolf appeared on stage he was welcomed truly enthusiastic, not to say hysterical. I had already been in Firlej at a few concerts, but I’d never seen such turnout yet. The famous British multiinstrumentalist appeared accompanied by a drummer, saxophonist and a violinist. At this very moment I stopped being objective. I simply love violin and since the first parts I let myself be overwhelmed by mass madness. The sax also coped well. I can vividly remember its characteristic parts in "The City". The vocalist himself reached several times for various instruments during the show, starting from harps, through violin and keyboards.
Patrick Wolf is famous for combining modern electronic tunes with sound of traditional instruments. He makes unusually harmonious, ear-catching and heart-touching melodies. In Firlej he presented full spectrum of his musical abilities, together with variety of his interests and compositions of his output. The show was obviously dominated by "Lupercalia"- the latest album being the promotional reason of the whole tour. We could also hear some of the older well-known tracks such as "The Magic Position", or "Damaris". Changes of the tempo and the mood of particular pieces were successfully saving us from feelings of monotony during nearly 2-hour show. The setlist included typically pop songs, dynamic, energetic, based on electronics, which made the crowd move like Together, The City, or Time of my Life, as well as stricte instrumental pieces, melancholic, concentrated on expressing deep vulnerability and much personal emotions, like "The Pigeons".
Patrick himself made a very positive impression, not only regarding his masterful virtuosity of play, soulful, warm vocal with unusually soft tembre, but also because of fantastic contact with the audience. The young Britishman was changing his image on stage as often as the mood of the performance was. During the first song he came onto the stage in an all-embracing black cloak, wearing a tie and a jacket with golden trimming, with neat hairstyle – he seemed to be a bit uptight. In the course of time the atmosphere was definitely warming up, the jacket gave up its place to a black and white shirt at first, and then to a sweatshirt with golden sequins, the tie ended up round the head. When the artist’s fringe was getting more and more out of control, he was at the same time unwinding on stage. He created amazingly pleasant warm atmosphere introducing each song with a few words, describing circumstances of their creation or stories connected with them with associated emotions of the author.
The audience prepared a little surprise for their idol. During one the tracks they made a cloud of soap bubbles heading for the stage, making an extra magical element to this slightly surrealistic atmosphere. The British performer wanted to thank his polish fans for making such numerous audience, took up a great gauntlet. Usually western artists do not surprise us with anything more than particular names of cities or certain words in our language during their shows. But Patrick Wolf set himself a far more breakneck goal. As far as the word "kocham (I love)" seems to be quite easy to utter even for a foreigner, the second element of the phrase – "wszystkich (all of you)"- appeared to be much more troublesome. In the end, to great delight of "all of us" gathered there, he made it.
Even though it was the middle of the week, and the time of day was not so early, so a working person had full right to already complain about serious symptoms of tiredness, I left outside from Patrick Wolf’s concert full of enthusiasm and positive energy, humming the most catchy melodies under my breath. Once again I’d like to mark the great importance of traditional instruments in each of the compositions. Contemporary music is so much dominated by electronics that we rarely have a chance to experience something similar. Thanks to cohesive combination of sounds, lights and colours, the whole show made a complete happening, very romantic and magical, having a positive effect on our senses and emotions.
Other articles:
- M'era Luna 2011 - 2012-02-22 (Live reports)
