Jimi Tenor
Live at the Barbican
London, September 17th 2000
Jimi Tenor with his band backed by
a full symphony orchestra in one of London's top concert
halls? Definitely not the average Jimi Tenor show, but
by far his biggest live production so far, and the first
of his orchestral shows.
The show consisted of
material mostly from his new album, but also some older
songs arranged for the occasion, including 'Europa'
and 'Atlantis', the jazz finale from his Warp debut
'Intervision', which sounded remarkably good with the
full orchestra. And having 'Take Me Baby' arranged for
a symphony orchestra might have sounded like a pretty
far out idea a year or two ago. Now it felt only natural
though - it rocked, and got the audience pretty well
into a party mood.
Jimi entered the stage in darkness
during 'Out Of Nowhere' dressed like some ancient oriental
wizard, carrying a lantern which actually turned out
to be the latest evolution of the Photophone. As the
title piece of his new album built up, Jimi drew mystical
sounds out of the light sensitive device, casting a
spell which took the audience through an evening of
pure Jimi Tenor magic.
'Night in Loimaa' provided a grand
beginning for the second set as Jimi took the stage
again, this time looking like a stray Ice Queen from
Narnia in his breathtaking new fantasy costume. Anatole
Kysk, the designer of Jimi's costumes, was also seen
on stage serving the band some champagne later on.
The songs, especially 'Backbone Of
Night' sounded more powerful than the recorded versions,
and the orchestra - which by the way was dressed in
quite an unorthodox manner for a symphony orchestra
- was confident enough about it all to deliver an outstanding
performance.
The intense show seemed to end far
too soon. The encore introduced a cool orchestral 'Sugardaddy'
as a final treat for the more than enthusiastic audience.
More of this please!
Setlist:
Out Of Nowhere
Atlantis
Backbone Of Night
Europa
Paint The Stars
Blood On Borscht
Night In Loimaa
Take Me Baby
Call Of The Wild
Spell
Hypnotic Drugstore
Better Than Ever
Sugardaddy
|
Jimi Tenor with the
Trinity College of Music Symphony Orchestra,
conducted by Mike Kearsey
Nicole Willis - vocals
Wanda Pittman - vocals
Baluji Shrivastav - sitar, tablas, tampura, vocals
Chris Dawkins - guitar
Ilkka Mattila - guitar
Phil Laughlin - bass
Simon Pearson - drums
Costumes by Anatole Kysk
Photophone built by Matti Knaapi
More
photos from the rehearsals & show
Reviews
at The
Observer, The
Independent,
The Guardian, music365
and nme.com.
|