Sparks concerts 19-21

PARSLEY'S COMMLOCK
Concert Review: Sparks 19-21, Islington Academy 10/11, Shepherds Bush Empire 13/06/08
Back to Sparks for the final 3 concerts in their epic adventure.

First up was Lil' Beethoven. My good friend Lord Freddie Valentine bought me this album some time ago, and much to my chagrin, and busy schedule, I'd failed to get round to listening to it until I couldn't find it. I'd gathered that their more recent albums had more stage visuals, and was interested to see how much they would recreate on the relatively small Academy stage.

Tonight there were two big screens at the back instead of one, with kettledrums at the front on either side, and a xylophone. There was also a drum kit off to one side. The concert began with a projection of a row of metronomes clicking left and right under a row of round arches. Throughout the concert these arches appeared with the name of the next song above them.

Gradually I remembered what was unique about this album: an almost religious lack of regular drums for most it. It set the scene for what might have been regarded as an extraordinary act of self-indulgence were it not for the fact that everyone (and this was a well-attended concert) was totally into it, up for it, and singing along.

At the earlier concerts there was a guy shouting out the single word 'genius' at periodic intervals. Tonight we were treated to someone shouting 'you are the true revolutionaries'. Russell Mael came out and climbed and sang on an elevated stage at the back. The guys that normally played backing instruments were off to one side singing backing vocals. Steven Nistor, the main drummer from before, played kettle drum right. Tammy Glover, who played with them for these later albums originally, and would later play drums, was on kettledrum left. Animations accompanied the songs. At first they showed an energetic orchestra, whose sound seemed to be coming off a backing tape, and presently a row of Ron Maels with ties revolving in metronome time.

Throughout the concert the projections emphasised the song messages, which were pretty blunt anyway from their titles, generally heavily repeated throughout the songs. Ron took centre stage for quite a lot of the action. He chased brides disappearing between the arches for 'I Married Myself'. He walked around stage with a busty vivacious woman for 'Ugly Guys with Beautiful Girls'. For that the projection showed a row of beautiful female faces on the left, and hands counting out a vast stack of money on the right. It would have taken a pretty major effort not to get the message.

The album was one of the longer of the shows, taking the best part of an hour. For an encore they performed 'Wunderbar', a song they had written as part of a tribute to a German sports commentator, using samples of his commentary. Russell explained that this had been a partial inspiration for tonight's album. As it was using a limited set of phrases repeated, it was easy to see the connection. I left fully back into it, with only 2 shows to go.

Next day I was back for 'Hello Young Lovers'. Drums had returned more definitely into the sound, and the whole album seemed more accessible, although there was little change in the massive audience appreciation. 'Profile', a more vintage item, appeared as the encore.

Finally 2 days later we had all made the trek to Shepherds Bush Empire for the last night, 'Exotic Creatures Of The Deep'. The stage consisted of a row of picture frames. Band members appeared in some of these, whilst the large middle one was a screen onto which animations appeared. There was a chimp playing the piano, and even a full projection of a 'Photoshop' session from the song in which Russell sang ' Photoshop me out of your life'.

It was anyone's guess what the album title meant, but to me it was the deep Ron Mael, as there were uncharacteristic flashes of vulnerability in the aforementioned 'Photoshop', and also '(She Got Me) Pregnant'. But I could be wrong. There was also some ticklish comedy with a silhouette projection illustrating the song 'Lighten Up Morrissey'.

At the end of the show there was a very long sequence where Ron Mael 'set fire' to all of the previous album sleeves as if consigning them to history. After a brief stage re-vamp break they came back to do the obscure tracks they had invited people to request via the web site. The stage was bare and black except for the band spread out across it. Not sure how many had voted, but the remit seemed to have been widened to include their favourites and ones people had asked for in begging letters etc.

Here I have to confess that I cracked and broke the mood of reverence by shouting 'Turn the bass drum down!' It was mixed so disastrously loud and boomy that it was drowning out the instruments and subtlety from this landmark performance.

As a final encore they came out and performed 'This Town Ain't Big Enough For The Both Of Us'. Russell finally sang 'I Ain't Gonna Leave' and they immediately moved to leave the stage (!). There was a last twist as Ron explained how fantastic it had been to have their first album out, and here they were celebrating 21. The shows and the albums were an unmatchable achievement.

parsley@gardenrecords.com [www.gardenrecords.com]