After much tadooing and wondering when the band would deign to appear (9:45 for the first act of the evening was the answer), on came the indie enigma that is Anthony Reynolds.
Tonight the main man in the band Jack was masquerading as Jacques and even had Kirk Lake singing one song. Several Jack songs appeared towards the end of the set but generally the gig was exactly as it was billed - a slimline version of the album band promoting the album. Somehow everything seemed slower than the album - maybe it was the lack of drums and bass, although a particularly retro Yamaha keyboard did its best to impersonate a drum machine in certain tracks.
The man responsible for bass on the new album To Stars, Bryan Mills, was in attendance, but merely as an observer. Joining Reynolds on stage, in addition to Lake, were a violinist (not playing for most of the songs), an electric guitarist and a keyboard player.
This gig was, consequently, a showcase of Anthony Reynolds' voice first and songwriting second. It was an evening without fanfare or encore, an evening of melancholy and of reflection. Those of us not lulled to sleep by Jacques' lullabies were left in no mood to clap, stamp our feet or generally mosh at all. Reynolds' tempo seems to be somewhere between a relaxation tape and a 45rpm record played at 33.
Did the gig promote the album? I asked some random audience members who just happened to be with me. "Good, but went on a bit too long," was the verdict of one. "He's got a great voice," said another. Neither outstanding nor terrible, then. But it would be nice to hear the band with a rhythm section next time; it would be even nicer if stand-out tracks like The Day Before You Came and The Orchestra I Loved were played in preference to old songs by (supposedly) another band. Ah well.
