Willy Mason - The Gate, Cardiff - 6th September 2011 (Live Review)
Wednesday, 07 September 2011
Written by Dave Ball
It’s been a quiet few years for Willy Mason. Since 2007’s ‘If The Ocean Gets Rough’ he all but disappeared but began his new mini-tour around the UK last night at Cardiff’s The Gate. The venue itself is an old church and the main hall consists of around 100 folding chairs on a floor in front of the stage, flanked on the remaining three sides by rising rows of pews. Altogether it probably only holds 350 people but the acoustics are fantastic with its high, curved ceiling.
First up on the three performer bill is Dan Leftkowitz, now performing solo as Futur Primitif after his previous stint as a member of The Low Anthem. His set consists of him switching between electric and acoustic guitar while his observational lyrics balancing hope and despair blend with his gravelly voice to create a sound not dissimilar to Ryan Adams during his ‘Love Is Hell’ period.
Next up are ‘The Staves’, three sisters who offer a similarly stripped down set which mostly contains three-piece harmonies complemented by an acoustic guitar and an occasional ukulele. Their folky songs and subtly beautiful harmonies are impressive but they currently lack the radio friendly song they would need to get noticed in a genre that has been flooded in recent years.
Before his set Willy Mason arrives on stage unannounced to ask if anyone has a thumb pick he can borrow having broken his. With no takers he’s left to return 5 minutes later to start his set with a hastily repaired pick, gaffer tape never fails to be useful….
It’s a brave set from Mason too. His 2005 debut album ‘Where The Humans Eat’ remains his only commercial success, yet he draws only a handful of songs from this and it’s testament to his belief in what he’s written before and since then.
It’s a wise decision too, with a rapturously attentive audience hanging off every sharp lyric and listening to each story he weaves, his electric guitar hums away the country styled backing tracks. It’s clear that, while he may not have received the same commercial attention for these songs, they seamlessly stand side-by-side with the tracks he did become semi-famous for.
That said, the highlight of the show was a stripped back version of ‘Hard Hand To Hold’ which sounds wonderful in this type of venue, his talent as a lyricist really shining through. Later, he makes another strong statement by playing his one ‘hit’ before the close of the set. ‘Oxygen’ takes everyone by surprise and still sounds as good as ever.
His encore is that rarest of beasts these days in that it appears genuinely unplanned. After a few minutes of pondering what to play and, somewhat surprisingly resisting the calls for ‘Where The Humans Eat’ or ‘So Long, he chooses to close up with ‘Live It Up’ and ‘Waiter At The Station’, both from his first commercial release ‘G-Ma’s Basement EP’ and both of which sound fantastic. A fitting way to send the appreciative crowd back out into the stormy.
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