Last night saw a rare occurrence at the beautifully restored Teatre Principal in Palma, an event in English. The Lloyd Cole Ensemble, a 3 piece, consisting of the man himself on his black and brown guitar (as he put it) accompanied by Matt Cullen - Steel string guitar and banjo along with Mark Schwaber - Nylon and steel string guitar, mandolin.
In what was a very warm theatre the guys came on stage and kicked straight in to the music with a track from his self titled and first solo album but then swiftly followed with a couple of tracks from the Commotions days to get everybody in the mood. (Set list published below). A number of tracks from the new album were peppered throughout the evening amongst some haunting renditions of the classics. Beautifully performed versions of Perfect Skin, Rattlesnakes and Forest Fire by this threesome, which were so obviously enjoying not only this concert but the whole of their tour. Throughout the first half, the charismatic Mr Cole was anxious to sell his latest album Broken Record as he mentioned once or twice that it could be bought outside after the show and that he would be out there signing this and anything else that was brought along, within reason (which he did).
How do you describe the style nowadays, well I’ll best leave it to Lloyd Cole himself - “The Small Ensemble is my new baby blue grass band. No, we're not really blue grass at all, but we do use similar instrumentation. And we're all acoustic.” I’ll just add that they have a totally laid back and relaxed style but that the voice of Lloyd Cole, that we all remember from many years ago is still there, sounding exactly the same, just as good as it’s ever been.
This was another special night with the guys actually putting together two sets, a rarity at concerts these days. Two sets of close to an hour each time plus the encore. An intimate concert with the lads away, who were just playing Foosball in local bars across Europe, having a good time.
For those of us that live in Mallorca you get used to all the best venues having everything in Catalan, an almost jingoistic viewpoint. Whilst the majority of us agree with the protection of local languages and dialects, when the island consists of around 40% “foreigners” as residents would it not make sense to reflect that in the performing arts. Surely more international artists performing here would help everybody, especially at venues like the Teatre Principal, especially as theoretically 40% of the restoration cost is down to the rest of us. Even to have information given to us in a language we could understand would be a start. This discussion will carry on somewhere else, I’m sure, let’s not detract from what was an excellent concert by The Lloyd Cole Ensemble.
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