Malcolm Middleton

live at the Kings Arms, Auckland

with Kirsten Morrell

12-05-08

It was a cold, wintry night that acclaimed ex-Arab Strap front man-turned-solo-artist Malcolm Middleton finally took to a New Zealand stage. Opened for first by another folk singer, ex-pat Kirsten Morrell, it was a significantly small turn out at first, but a high quality one at that. The atmosphere was akin to that old punk rock adage – “everybody who was there went out and formed bands.” Well, instead of forming bands, everybody that was at the King Arms that night just really enjoyed themselves immensely.

Though captivating the crowd, Morrell’s first solo gig showed her nerves; she had some visibly rough edges as she was clearly still trying to find her footing. But her trademark nervy squall and Beth Gibbon-esque bite won out, proving her to be not such a mismatched opener after all. Geoff Maddock (from Goldenhorse) and Jol Mulholland provided more than ample guitar and drums backing that made me wonder where they had been hiding.

Malcolm Middleton’s unexpectedly good set turned out to be the ultimate winner on the night. Arab Strap’s songs were always pretty fucking depressive, so I had no idea Malcolm’d be such a personable, witty and charming fellow – in a deathly ironic, self-deprecating kinda way. After his first song, he mused: “Well that was pretty fucking miserable. It’s my first time here, so I’m pretty excited to be here… but I’ll be excited later; right now I have to be miserable – cos that’s what you expect. Right, now this song is called Devastation, it’s a comedy skit…”

The crowd, 99% taken with Middleton’s witty between-song banter and sorrowful, unashamedly edgy voice, had a couple of standouts. 1) Drunken Loon (every five minutes): “Play some Proclaimers!” Malcolm: “I don’t know any Proclaimers songs!” getting more and more edgy with each repeated, slurred request. 2) The man centre-front, wistfully gazing stage-ward, eyes glassy, tentatively clutching his straw to his drink, hands then neatly clasped at his front as he rocked gently back and forth.

I hadn’t been to a more relaxed gig where people sat so comfortably on the floor and grinned and cuddled throughout the whole set since the time Jens Lekman played at The Odeon. It was pretty apt; too, that he played around the same time as the comedy festival, because he was easily the funniest act I’ve seen in a long time. He said it himself: “This is one of the best gigs ever, I can’t believe it, I made a joke earlier about how if I swung on my chair during the set it’d look too happy so I couldn’t do it, and I just went to do it now but I can’t cos they’ve gaffer-taped my chair! (He laughs) This is awesome.”

 

Posted by Sarah Gooding under New Zealand, Scotland
No Comments