Earlier, I was happily sitting 'in work' composing some flowery expressions to describe the Go-Betweens show in Manchester last night when my Apple Mac decided inexplicably (isn't it always so?) to freeze on me before I'd had a chance to save the potential masterpiece.
As a result I'm now left with just a few minutes this evening in the midst of a mountain of ironing ahead of a week's holiday to jot down a few thoughts...
I haven't enough time right now to do it justice, to be fair, but I do want to post something. In many respects, they were a revelation and an inspiration. The Go-Betweens are almost as far removed from the Flaming Lips in terms of performance as its possible to imagine, but that didn't make it any less of a live 'experience'.
Sure, there was no cinematic backdrop, no giant balloons, no dancing rabbits, no blinding strobe lights... but what there was was a pair of battle-hardened Australian enigmas with a back-catalogue of classic pop songs between them to put anyone to shame.
To look at they couldn't be a more unlikely combination - Robert Forster, a gangly, aging lounge lizard of a man with the most expressive face; Grant McLennan, balding but perennially youthful in appearance and mostly quiet and thoughtful on stage. Put the pair together, though (along with a quietly effective rhythm section) and, well, there's 'magic in here'.
I liked that they can re-invent their brilliant, but on record instrument-rich, favourites like "Right Here" and "Bye Bye Pride" with this stripped-down configuration, but not make you feel like you were missing something.
I loved the way the songs from the latest record, which I don't yet own (not for long!) were equally as captivating on first listen as "The House Jack Kerouac Built" was on 101st.
I admired the way they engineered the sound so that the instruments came out of the PA sounding almost exactly as nature intended, rather than like the bass-heavy dirge that you sometimes get at intimate gigs like this one. And it was great that this allowed the dynamics of the songs to come through so effectively.
Criticisms? Too many encores. I don't like them anyway, but two is enough for even the most bombastic of bands; to go beyond that like the Go-Betweens did is just madness. Also, we would have liked to have heard the bass player's backing vocals a bit louder.
But these are minor gripes, really, against an otherwise heart-warming and inspirational show. Robert and Grant are together again and enjoying it, and this show - together with the two records they've produced since - suggest there is nothing gimmicky, forced or half-arsed about their comeback.
Alan, 28/04/2003