overyourhead

Erasure Acoustic...

Last night Guy, Mario, Ian, Paul, Drew and I went to see Erasure at the Shepherds Bush Empire.

We all met up in the Defector's Weld first for a few swifties and then over to the gig proper.

Andy and Vince were promoting their acoustic Union Street album (crashing into the charts at number 102 last week if you please). The album, and indeed the set last night, showcases Vince and Andy song writing talents over their twenty-one year career together. They have picked songs from various albums and reworked them as acoustic numbers often in a yee-haa country and western stylee. Indeed, Andy insists one motivating factor behind Union Street was to "show the songs in a different light, and show that they could work on whatever instrument, synthesizers or guitars. Vince agrees: "We just felt there were songs on our albums that had been missed as songs."

So the gig last night was an experiment I guess. Would this all work live? And for me the answer is a resounding 'yes' but with perhaps a couple of caveats. Standing in the stalls makes you realise how much people chat at gigs when "a slow one comes on". Worse still, when a gig is 80% slow ones they just chat 80% of the time. So short of punching the noisy fucker next to me I resorted to blowing smoke in his direction and staring at him. Shut the fuck up, you git! The other slight issue is that Erasure gigs are all about dancing. The many times I've seen them before we danced from opening track to mind-bending climax. But last night was mainly about swaying. Good though it was I was left wanting to have danced more. Though it was great to bop a bit to country versions of Blue Savannah Song and Chains Of Love.

Erasure said on the ITN News last night that this wouldn't be a change of direction for them and that the album they were working on next would be full on synth based. So perhaps we can allow them this slight indulgence and revel in Andy magnificent voice as it soars with a solo guitar accompaniment.

'Natch I've already ordered the concert CD from LiveHereNow.