For a musician who has previously traded on his overt flamboyance, it may seem a bit risky for Patrick Wolf to strip it back for a wholly acoustic set. However, anyone who has followed the multi-instrumentalist singer/songwriter since his debut album ‘Lycanthropy’ in 2003 will know that Wolf doesn’t need the electronic elements that have helped shaped his discography; in a live setting, the talented troubadour proves he’s the real deal by stripping it back and showcasing his voice, his poetry and his musical talent completely free of beats.
Opening torch song ‘London’ sets the tone in front of a Saturday night audience allocated seats. It may not be party time but there is atmosphere in the intimacy as Wolf represents highlights from his five albums in a fresh way, switching from piano and four-string instruments whilst aided by four band members on violin, cello, accordion and oboe/woodwind respectively. Although his work has always been critically praised, albeit ignored by the record-buying public, here in its barebones form it is surprising just how effective it, and Wolf as an artisan, is.
The show is in support of recent career overview ‘Sundark and Riverlight’, which presents sixteen of Wolf’s songs as an acoustic retrospective. However, other fans faves are also given a showing in the live spotlight, making the sparse but dedicated crowd an attentive and happy bunch as Wolf and his band effortlessly do each song justice. Highlights abound: Wolf amping up the drama as a frontman to the unhinged gypsy-folk of ‘The Libertine’, delivering romanticism free of irony during the blissful ‘House’ and ‘Together’, and enticing tears with a dedication to a lost friend on ‘The Sun is Often Out’, his voice soaring and aided only by accordion.
It’s easy for gigs like this to be stuffy and, considering the stripped-back element, weirdly pompous. Thankfully though, Wolf is a charming presence; although he can go to intense places in his songs and go all-out with a big vocal, Wolf understands that his music has reached a certain sector of music fans and communicates with them readily and easily between songs. Whether it’s introducing ‘Overture’ as a dedication to his younger bullied self or querying how far audience members have travelled or what’s worth doing in Wolverhampton (he is a Wolf after all), he makes the two-hour set as engrossing for part-time fans as the in-house devotees.
As the gig nears completion, songs usually reserved for encores come thick and fast: celebratory ‘The City’ comes complete with Wolves-based ad libs, while an anthemic double bill of ‘Bermondsey Street’ and ‘The Falcons’ are boosted by the week’s politics, Wolf’s all-encompassing love songs reaching sky-high in the wake of legalisation of gay marriage. Of course, ‘The Magic Position’ is a crowd-pleasing gem as always, and an encore of ‘Wolf Song’ (what else?) is rendered especially special with flourishes of Joni Mitchell’s ‘Circle Game’. All in all? Wow. A Wolf to hunt down and catch next time he’s in town.
Luke McNaney
