Goldfrapp

Sharon and I saw Goldfrapp at the Royal Concert Hall in Glasgow last night. It was excellent. We hadn’t been out to a concert in like forever.

We had front-row seats, and for a band like Goldfrapp, there’s nothing like it.

Every time I see live music I tell myself I need to do it more often. It does good things to me. There really is no comparison to listening to CDs at home; a live show is an entirely different animal.

We hadn’t expected an opening band, but we enjoyed it. It was a three piece called The Fryars: lead guy in the center with a keyboard; drummer on the right; and a girly keyboard player on the left. I do like girly keyboard players. (Goldfrapp has one too). The Fryars had a sparse sound, the keyboards providing bass and deep rolling rhythms, providing a perfect offset for the vocal melodies. His voice perfectly suited the music, a kind of new wave 80’s sound, but much richer somehow, the lyrics almost folky in parts.

The drummer was robotic. Tight and precise but boring as hell. I noticed that before each song, the front man would always tap a few keystrokes on his computer. That worried me. Was he feeding the robot a click track? Or worse, feeding us backing tracks? And why did the drummer have an earpiece? I distrust earpieces. I didn’t hear anything I couldn’t account for, but maybe they’re hearing things we can’t, making this live performance not live at all. Maybe I’m just an old fart. Maybe that’s how they all do it these days (later I noticed Goldfrapp sporting earpieces a-plenty), but back in the good old days we used stage monitors. Maybe that’s passé.

Nonetheless I was impressed. I think I’ll look them up.

But that’s not what we were here for, nor the rest of the sold out hall. We were here for Goldfrapp and the dancing girls.

When they finally came on everyone was ready. And they didn’t waste any time – within minutes everyone was smitten. This really is a stage band. The energy kept building all evening, the audience getting more and more into it, the band responding in kind with even stronger performances.

They mostly did songs from the new album, Seventh Tree, which are more mellow and melodic than their earlier club sound. This gave the show a nice dynamic though, moving through more recent sonic pleasures (Little Bird, Happiness), on to the older, ear-splitting favourites (Utopia; Ooh la la; Strict Machine).

Utopia had me in tears. Music does that to me sometimes. Her voice just kept soaring and soaring, her arms lifted up high, the lighting going bright white on her highest, clearest note. Glorious. She sang like that for the whole show, giving us her very best. A lot of singers strut and dance all about the stage, getting out of breath, shouting instead of singing, making no attempt at microphone control. But not Alison. She was always after the best sound quality, hitting every note and following it right through with the intention of it.

During Number 1, a balding accountant in the second row got up and started dancing, waving his arms to the crowd: “come on everybody, get up!” Everyone remained seated, but he was excellent, dancing all on his own. Alison enjoyed it too. There’s always a guy like that at concerts and festivals. God love them.

They played two encores, and although I was still hoping for some half-naked dancing girls, the audience seemed happy enough, so we all headed on our way. On the way back to the car I kept having to ask Sharon to repeat herself. Front row. Nothing like it.

It was really good to get out – we hadn’t been out in a long time, not since well before wee Bruce was born. And Sharon didn’t even phone our babysitter until we were on our way home. How’s that for making it count? I was sure she’d be worrying and calling at every opportunity. I’m happy she proved me wrong.

Speaking of opportunities: if you get one to see Goldfrapp, just do it. You won’t be disappointed. (Well, unless you’re expecting dancing girls. Nae luck).

How very unfortunate that their web site won’t load on my machine, even though I’m on the latest version of Flash. Instead, here’s an Amazon link.

To get a taste of their live show, check out Strict Machine from T in the Park, July 2006. Be sure to turn it up loud:

(To see it in full screen (recommended), watch it directly from YouTube, and click the little full-screen button in the lower right).