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BONNIE PRINCE BILLY - Teatro Masini, Faenza, Italy
29 Apr 2007, 16:07
Sat 28 Apr – Bonnie 'Prince' Billy
Will Oldham is his own man. The choices he makes never seem driven by ambition for worldly gain or broad based commercial appeal. In concert you don't expect him to look slick or run through songs so that they sound exactly like they do on disc.
The consistency and honesty of his song writing and his integrity as a performer is perhaps matched only by Bill Callahan(Smog).
By now the back catalogue at the disposal in his various incarnations (Will Oldham /Palace /Palace Songs /Bonnie Prince Billy ) ranges from the dark and gothic despair to, more recently, warm melodic love songs.
The harshness of the Palace years in the early 1990s has largely given way to a softer sound often with lush orchestral arrangements. The Superwolf collaboration between Bonnie Prince Billy & Matt Sweeney in 2005 showed, however, that he hadn't abandoned the electric side and in Faenza tonight there is just Oldham on electric guitar and a super focused Alex Neilson on drums. The White Stripes it ain't but still the result is that even the subtlest of his songs are given an electric blues makeover.
The biggest revelation here is how chatty he is. He apologises for his lack of linguistic dexterity struggling to remember that 'song' is "canzone" in Italian ("That's a word I should know, right?"). He jokes that normally he'd be able to slay us with his fluency in Italian but claims it's an off night because of an argument with a woman from 'over the water' before the show.
"Perdonomi for my long description of songs in English" he says, ironic given that 2 years ago at an open air concert in the same town he didn't say a single word throughout the whole set! "It's good to play inside" he comments by way of possible explanation for his more gregarious stage manner tonight.
For 'John The Baptist' he undertakes a rambling intro the upshot being that decapitation is a 'shitty' thing and all too common now and that a 'clean death' is preferable. The song itself he describes as being a 'happy little epic' whereupon the biblical story is, for the first part, at least performed in a style which had my American friends in stitches speculating afterwards that this is how Sponge Bob Square Pants might have approached the same subject matter. It turns out it’s actually an old E.C. Ball pre-war tune spliced together with a song by John & Beverly Martyn.
Oldham's longest (and most obscure) monologue is reserved for the penultimate song (Wolf Among Wolves) which he prefaces with a 'true story' of his language difficulties as a child where he apparently could only communicate effectively with his dog, a Great Dane. This posed difficulties when later in life he met a blonde-haired beauty who only loved cats. If I understood right she wasn't put off by his dog-like behavior but, on the contrary, she got off on his wolfish howling and, presumably, his other animal graces.
The Bonnie Prince cranks up the volume here which is fine for the Superwolf or older Palace material like 'Work Hard Play Hard' (which they play here after asking for requests).
The guitar + drums treatment doesn't however allow for much variation so the delicacy of songs like 'After I Made Love To You' is mostly lost.
Ironically the venue - a beautifully ornate 18th century neoclassical theatre - would have lent itself perfectly to a more intimate acoustic set. This is something of a luxury these days as at most venues performers have to compete with the babble of loudmouths at the bar who venture out for animated chatter rather than to listen to music.
Still it's an eclectic set all the same closing with the cheesy Dolly Parton song made famous by Whitney Houston ‘I Will Always love You’!
Although it's still hard to take seriously claims that he has ambitions as a stand-up comedian I came away a little wiser to the humour of the man behind the enigma that is Will Oldham.
SET LIST
I See A Darkness
The Southside Of the World
No Bad News
Ohio River Boat Song
Nomadic Revelry (All Around)
Wai
Let The Wires Ring
Let It Be
John The Baptist
Strange Form Of Life
Big Friday
Horses / My Home Is The Sea
I Send My Love To You
Even If Love
Cursed Sleep
Work Hard Play Hard
I Called You Back
ENCORE
Ease Down The Road
After I Made Love To You
Oh Billy Riley
Wolf Among Wolves
I Will Always Love You
Will Oldham is his own man. The choices he makes never seem driven by ambition for worldly gain or broad based commercial appeal. In concert you don't expect him to look slick or run through songs so that they sound exactly like they do on disc.
The consistency and honesty of his song writing and his integrity as a performer is perhaps matched only by Bill Callahan(Smog).
By now the back catalogue at the disposal in his various incarnations (Will Oldham /Palace /Palace Songs /Bonnie Prince Billy ) ranges from the dark and gothic despair to, more recently, warm melodic love songs.
The harshness of the Palace years in the early 1990s has largely given way to a softer sound often with lush orchestral arrangements. The Superwolf collaboration between Bonnie Prince Billy & Matt Sweeney in 2005 showed, however, that he hadn't abandoned the electric side and in Faenza tonight there is just Oldham on electric guitar and a super focused Alex Neilson on drums. The White Stripes it ain't but still the result is that even the subtlest of his songs are given an electric blues makeover.
The biggest revelation here is how chatty he is. He apologises for his lack of linguistic dexterity struggling to remember that 'song' is "canzone" in Italian ("That's a word I should know, right?"). He jokes that normally he'd be able to slay us with his fluency in Italian but claims it's an off night because of an argument with a woman from 'over the water' before the show.
"Perdonomi for my long description of songs in English" he says, ironic given that 2 years ago at an open air concert in the same town he didn't say a single word throughout the whole set! "It's good to play inside" he comments by way of possible explanation for his more gregarious stage manner tonight.
For 'John The Baptist' he undertakes a rambling intro the upshot being that decapitation is a 'shitty' thing and all too common now and that a 'clean death' is preferable. The song itself he describes as being a 'happy little epic' whereupon the biblical story is, for the first part, at least performed in a style which had my American friends in stitches speculating afterwards that this is how Sponge Bob Square Pants might have approached the same subject matter. It turns out it’s actually an old E.C. Ball pre-war tune spliced together with a song by John & Beverly Martyn.
Oldham's longest (and most obscure) monologue is reserved for the penultimate song (Wolf Among Wolves) which he prefaces with a 'true story' of his language difficulties as a child where he apparently could only communicate effectively with his dog, a Great Dane. This posed difficulties when later in life he met a blonde-haired beauty who only loved cats. If I understood right she wasn't put off by his dog-like behavior but, on the contrary, she got off on his wolfish howling and, presumably, his other animal graces.
The Bonnie Prince cranks up the volume here which is fine for the Superwolf or older Palace material like 'Work Hard Play Hard' (which they play here after asking for requests).
The guitar + drums treatment doesn't however allow for much variation so the delicacy of songs like 'After I Made Love To You' is mostly lost.
Ironically the venue - a beautifully ornate 18th century neoclassical theatre - would have lent itself perfectly to a more intimate acoustic set. This is something of a luxury these days as at most venues performers have to compete with the babble of loudmouths at the bar who venture out for animated chatter rather than to listen to music.
Still it's an eclectic set all the same closing with the cheesy Dolly Parton song made famous by Whitney Houston ‘I Will Always love You’!
Although it's still hard to take seriously claims that he has ambitions as a stand-up comedian I came away a little wiser to the humour of the man behind the enigma that is Will Oldham.
SET LIST
I See A Darkness
The Southside Of the World
No Bad News
Ohio River Boat Song
Nomadic Revelry (All Around)
Wai
Let The Wires Ring
Let It Be
John The Baptist
Strange Form Of Life
Big Friday
Horses / My Home Is The Sea
I Send My Love To You
Even If Love
Cursed Sleep
Work Hard Play Hard
I Called You Back
ENCORE
Ease Down The Road
After I Made Love To You
Oh Billy Riley
Wolf Among Wolves
I Will Always Love You
