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By Julian Savitch-Lee, Thursday 20th April 2006 10.37pm (1064 views)
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Erasure @ Shepherds Bush Empire, London
Date: 19th April 2006
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Being the youngest person at a gig can be an excellent achievement, or a damming verdict on the state of your life. Regardless, it is a statement and so is knowing the support act better than the 14 million album selling and the 21 year career of the headline act. I didn't realise that Erasure were still making records and playing live shows and neither do many other people it seems, based on their current album's position at 101 in the album charts.
This tour in support of the new album 'Union Street' is sensational - not my descriptive word - but it is the term used by Simple Kid, the support act who appears on stage alone mixing tracks from his first and second album. His backing bands are all contained within a laptop which, for his last song ‘Serotonin’, also projects the intelligent lyrics behind him as he sings them. The inventive use of technology is lost on the early 30s – late 40s age group that make up 98% of the audience. They talk throughout his set and almost forget to clap at the end. Poor Kid!
For they have come to see Erasure. In their masses. And whilst I am being told by a school teacher that this review should be about the bizarre mix of people there tonight, as it is very different from when he saw the band at their peak playing to arenas of kids (“Didn’t their parents realise all the homosexual meaning in the lyrics?”), I am concerned that many people might not stop talking to be able to hear the band play an acoustic set. As the lights dimmed, the sound scarily stopped and my acoustic expectations where met by an eight piece band. It is actions like this that lead me to believe this band must have been amazing in their heyday.
The attentiveness of the audience was amazing as they stared on, gripped by the lack of movement on stage. They did not interact until the third song when lead singer Andy Bell unzipped his sparkly red top to reveal a beer belly before prancing around the stage until the last note was sung. An introduction to the string section of the band (officially needed at every flamboyant band's acoustic show) is followed by a crowd sing along to hit ‘Oh L’Amour’. The night swings from high to low like this and the real highlights of the night all come late on. They include an excellent samba beat version of ‘I love to hate you’, which I wish I could own a copy of. However, it is a huge disappointment that they follow this with a very, very mellow cover which sees people run for the toilets like they'd been shut for an hour.
The crowd and band unite as the guitarist goes all hillbilly style for a solo in ‘Chains of Love’. Someone forgot to tell him the hillbilly number by the whole band was ‘Stop!’, one track earlier. One-track encores rarely delight the impartial, not huge fan, gig goer, but this time I was entranced by ‘A Little Respect’ and left wanting more. I did suddenly understand why they have such a large gay fan base - the lyrics are obvious even for those like me... too young to have kids in school.
For more information you can visit: http://www.erasuredownload.com
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