Black Box Recorder lynchpin Luke Haines has just released Das Capital,
an album of his old Auteurs and Baader Meinhof songs re-recorded with a
string section. Now was London's chance to see what the collective could
do with old - and new - material in a spacious church.
Gone were the
original Auteurs on the grounds of "diminished musical responsibility,"
the programme stated. A keyboardist, drummer and bassist joined Haines
and eight strings players on stage - and it was easily big enough to fit a full-scale orchestra on. St Luke's is like that - on the outside it's a quaint old church, but on the inside it's a maze of rooms, lifts, stairs and a vast auditorium decked out with wood, steel, cloth and anything else but what you'd expect seeing it on the outside.
Proceedings began with piped classical music - Land Of Hope And Glory was played at least twice - and a video of nearly-hit
Lenny Valentino mimed by a pretend band. A typically perverse start to the gig saw Haines, resplendent in a cream
suit and white shoes, take to the stage late - and tell us he was worth
waiting for. But of course.
This first of two sets maintained Das Capital's
Auteurs-plus-strings format. Starstruck, Lenny Valentino and Baader
Meinhof were standouts, but the genteel format left a dearth of oomph.
Every track had to be counted in by the drummer, and for the first few
songs it seemed only Haines' confident (arrogant?) stage presence held the 12
musicians together. Of course, his cult following were here to see St
Luke, regardless of who was playing with him - for The Auteurs was
always first and foremost his band, and every one of the songs played tonight would be from his pen.
Some of the slower and more intricate old songs in the new format
gained depth - Junk Shop Clothes, How Could I Be Wrong and Show Girl
particularly. And there was even time for new tracks Satan Wants Me (Not You) and The
Mitford Sisters, both of which failed to suggest any deviation from Haines' trademark sneering vocal style or penchant for writing instantly memorable chorus lines.
After a break and a trek to the crypt bar, fans returned to find the
strings gone - Haines cranked up his guitar and the pace shifted up
several gears. Mogadishu, Buddha and Your Gang Our Gang upped the ante, and an
encore of The Oliver Twist Manifesto set the beatbox going to
toe-tappingly good effect.
Black Box Recorder one month and The Auteurs
the next, this rendering showed Haines as a maverick songwriter with a
warped sense of humour, no matter which musical arrangements adorn his
songs. Long may he continue to beguile us.
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