Don McGlashan – Hopetoun Alpha

 

Don McGlashan quickly warmed up the chilly Hopetoun Alpha by playing his stunning new album, Lucky Stars, in its entirety, then treating the sold-out crowd to a second set of old favourites.

The Hopetoun Alpha is a lovely little venue, but it only holds about 300 or so people for a sit-down concert, so tickets for this first show of Don McGlashan’s tour quickly disappeared. I almost wasn’t able to attend, but through some miracle of good fortune found myself in the audience 15 minutes before Don was due to hit the stage.

I had prepared myself just in case I couldn’t get in. It turned out the Don was set to run through a “dress rehearsal” of the full show the previous day at the even smaller Audio Foundation venue just around the corner from Hopetoun Alpha.

So, on Wednesday evening at about 6pm I was able to experience, along with about 20 other lucky people, Don, along with guitarist Tom Rodwell and drummer Chris O’Conner, working their way through the set planned for Thursday night.

The atmosphere was loose and Don seemed concerned about playing Lucky Stars all the way through.

He needn’t have worried.

It’s one of his strongest albums and contrary to popular belief, the album format is far from dead. If you think so, you’re just listening to the wrong music.

So, last night Don welcomed the audience an explained that this was, “an experiment, to play Lucky Stars from go to whoa”.

The stage at Hopetoun Alpha is higher than most and I was afraid it might eliminate some intimacy between the musicians and the audience, but that wasn’t the case.

The stage was decorated with fairly lights as a starry backdrop and there were star-themed tea towels for sale at the merch table, Don wryly noting that they had given plenty of thought to “imagery reinforcement”.

The 10 songs from Lucky Stars held together beautifully with the stately Girl, Make Your Own Mind Up serving as a perfect opening number.

Both Rodwell and O’Conner played on the album, and their contribution was even more apparent on stage. Chris O’Conner has the touch of a jazz musician and the heart of a rock and roller, while Tom Rodwell and his guitar seemed to meld into one piece.

This left Don to play acoustic guitar and to concentrate on his vocals, which sounded sublime.

There was some lengthy tuning, at one point Don fluffed a lyric to When The Trumpets Sound, but quickly shook it off  and he commented on how anxious he was about featuring so many new songs when he usually, “wants to hide them among the others”. But he said he felt that “the album should have its day”, and I’d have to say that everyone in the room would agree with him.

The first set ended with the achingly beautiful The Waves Would Roll On, and then there was a brief intermission.

Many notable musicians could be spotted in the crowd…Neil Finn, SJD, Shayne Carter…to check out Don’s latest musical offering.

The second set began with a triumphant Dominion Road, then a trio of tunes from 32006’s Warm Hand, including Toy Factory Fire, which much be the saddest song ever written to mention Bart Simpson and Big Bird.

There were a few laughs as well.

Don preceded Queen Of The Night with a story about a friend who asked what the 6^th word in the song was. He had thought it was “ass” when it turned out to be “arm”. So, when the audience heard Don sing, “The scented skin of your arm, lies heavy on my chest”, the collective imagined scene brought out plenty of chuckles.

This was followed by the night’s most poignant moment, a breath-taking performance of Andy, complete with a truly haunting euphonium solo by Don. It’s a very intimate song about loss and this provided a huge emotional centrepiece for the set.

From there, the mood was decidedly more upbeat with another Front Lawn song, Tomorrow Night building momentum through to Pulled Along By Love and C2006P1.

The set closed with The Muttonbirds’ The Heater, featuring a fine solo from Tom Rodwell and Chris O’Conner’s VU-like harmonium is tandem with Don’s euphonium…then one last splash of drumming to drive the song home.

For the encore we got two of Don’s finest songs…Bathe In The River and Anchor Me.

This was two hours of some of the finest live music you’re likely to hear this year. The tour proceeds through the rest of New Zealand with eight more scheduled dates. I would highly recommend attending any of these shows if you have the chance. And Don…how about another Auckland show at the end of the tour? I have a feeling it would do very well, and you could rid yourself of any spare tea towel you might have left over.

Marty Duda

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by David Watson:

Don McGlashan First set:

1. Girl, Make Your Own Mind Up
2. Lucky Stars
3. Hold On To Your Loneliness
4. Home To The Other Side
5. When The Trumpets Sound
6. For Your Touch
7. Charles Kingsford Smith
8. Come Back To Me
9. On My Way To You
10. The Waves Would Roll On

Second set:

1. Dominion Road
2. This Is London
3. Toy Factory Fire
4. Queen Of The Night
5. Andy
6. Tomorrow Night
7. Pulled Along By Love
8. C2006P1 (Make Yourself At Home)
9. The Heater
10. Bathe In The River
11. Anchor Me