Although it doesn’t officially begin until Wednesday, this year’s RISING festival kicked off last night not with a bang, nor with a whimper, but with a definite… mood, as Beth Gibbons took to the stage at Melbourne’s Hamer Hall to deliver her Lives Outgrown show, from her debut solo album of the same name, released last year.
For the uninitiated, Gibbons is the owner of that ethereal set of pipes that gave Portishead its unique sound throughout the 90s and beyond. The band hit its straps right out of the gate with its debut album, Dummy, in 1994, which featured such standout tracks as ‘Sour Times’, ‘Roads’ and, particularly, ‘Glory Box’. The latter two songs feature in the encore of the Lives Outgrown playlist, while the main set and final encore comprise the album in its entirety, plus ‘Mysteries’ and ‘Tom the Model’, a couple of songs Gibbons originally recorded with Talk Talk’s bassist, Paul Webb, under his stage name, Rustin Man, for their 2002 album, Out of Season.
Fans of Gibbons and Portishead would probably know what to expect from the show. Gibbons famously has a rather shy and retiring physical presence, and the way this manifests on stage is via the singer taking centre stage and clinging to the microphone stand with both hands, as if for dear life, while being lit in such a way that her face is almost permanently in shadow, with dramatic lighting behind and around her – alternating between reds, blues, purples and more, with the odd foray into a pale billowing backdrop.
During the Hamer Hall gig, Gibbons also appeared reluctant to engage with the audience in any way. Accompanied by an accomplished seven-piece band (drums, keyboards, percussion, violins and guitars), she didn’t even speak until after the sixth track and then it was solely to offer a simple thank you – a sentiment that was repeated in heartfelt fashion at the end of the show.
In her 1979 stage debut, The Tour of Life, Kate Bush – a singer publicly admired by Gibbons and to whom she has been compared – also refrained from breaking the fourth wall, but that was a much more theatrical affair throughout, justifying the approach. With the audience unable to actually see Gibbons, it is left to the bold and shifting lighting states to do much of the visual heavy lifting – a big ask in anyone’s book.
Incidentally, Kate Bush’s nephew Raven Bush – son of poet and photographer John Carder Bush – played violins and violas on most of the tracks on the Lives Outgrown album, but is not in the band touring with Gibbons. The line-up is Eoin Rooney – guitars, marching snare, backing vocals; Emma Smith – violin, clarinet, guitar, backing vocals; Tom Herbert – bass, Fender VI, backing vocals; Jason Hazeley – keyboards, ondes; Howard Jacobs – contrabass clarinet, vibraphone, timpani, baritone saxophone, flute, bombo, percussion, metal and gongs, recorder, hammered guitar, backing vocals; Richard Jones – viola, guitar, backing vocals; James Ford – drums, harmonium , tenor recorder, backing vocals, musical director.
Gibbons’ diffidence could be received in two ways: for the absolute aficionados of her vocal artistry, it enables utter immersion in the soundscape and the otherworldly transportive nature of her performance. For those less familiar with her style, there may be a touch of frustration at not being able to clearly discern the person performing. Deborah Harry frequently takes the stage almost armoured up with hat, dark glasses and coat, which are then one by one shed as she relaxes and becomes more comfortable with the crowd and her reception.
Gibbons doesn’t do this, to the extent that those unfamiliar with her face, could probably walk past her in the foyer after the show and not recognise her.
At Hamer Hall, however, it was clear that the majority of the crowd had come for the sound alone. And they wouldn’t have been disappointed, with ‘Mysteries’ and ‘For Sale’ being particular highlights – the latter featuring strong backing vocals from Eoin Rooney.
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For such a poetic and soulful musician, however, the mix did favour the instrumentation at the expense of the clarity of the lyrics for a significant portion of the concert, an element that was brought more sharply into focus by the time we got to ‘Lost Changes’, the seventh song in the set, when it was possible to hear the words clearly. And it was worth the wait…
Beth Gibbons Live Outgrown played two Melbourne shows as part of RISING at 5.30pm and 8.30pm on Sunday 1 June at Hamer Hall. She continues her world tour with shows in Brisbane at Fortitude Hall on Tuesday 3 June and Odeon Theatre in Hobart as part of Dark Mofo on Thursday 5 June.
