David Gray and Aqualung: Show Review

Of course, the show started late. Which they always do. Unless we arrive late, in which case they start right on time. Damn Murphy’s law. More time for pre-show drinks, say we.

For the most part, we really enjoyed the show. As you may already be aware, we are big fans of Aqualung and love to see that cutie Matt Hales whenever we have the chance. This is the first time we’ve seen them play as an opener for someone else. They were good, but we didn’t get much of the crowd interaction or song explanation that we have really enjoyed from them in the past. Also, this time they appeared with a full band, which sounded good, but we much prefer just Matt on the piano. Or Matt on piano and his brother, Ben, on guitar. They really don’t need all that other stuff and, frankly, we think it kind of gets in the way of what Aqualung does best, which is Matt Hales singing his heart out to the backdrop of the rich piano melodies that lie behind most of their music. That said, we still thought they sounded great. As far as we know, they continue to have only one album out in the U.S., so naturally they played a few songs from that including what they referred to as “the hit” (Brighter than Sunshine). Our favorite part though, was at the end of their set. Matt told the story about how last year at SXSW, he went to Stubb’s to see Wilco and was inspired. Then they cranked out an uncharacteristically jammin’ rendition of “I’m the Man That Loves You”. We may be big Aqualung fans, but we are huge Wilco fans. That made us very, very happy.

Then it was time for a quick bathroom break, one more gin and tonic (did we mention how strong those suckers were?), and on to David Gray. He came out and immediately busted into the first song accompanied by a full panoply of musicians. He even had some strings and a real live drummer instead of a drum machine, which was a good thing.

Due to a bit of alcohol-inspired confusion, we can’t remember everything he played, but we do recall that it was a somewhat odd selection in that there were a lot of songs we expected him to play that he didn’t. For instance, while he played mostly from his new album, “Life in Slow Motion”, he did not play the title track, which, incidentally, we love. He gave the crowd what they wanted with his massive radio hit “Babylon.” And he really threw us for a loop by closing with a cover of the Cure’s “Friday I’m in Love.” We know – it sounds odd and it was, but it worked nicely. We especially liked how he changed the lyrics to say, “Thursday I don’t give a fuck about you”. Nicely done, David. Take that, Robert Smith - you prude.

As a whole, the show was consistently powerful and rich. David Gray seemed to be “on” and animated and happy to be in Austin. He bobbed and shook his head while pounding out haunting, pulsating melodies on the piano or strumming an acoustic guitar. His distinctive voice sounded flawlessly strong and resonated above the accompanying music to deliver one compelling performance after another. The acoustics were great and it was easy to understand the lyrics, which are sad and sweet, and sometimes amazingly moving. Even though we would have liked to have heard some other songs, it was a solid show overall and well worth seeing.

*Photo courtesy of neyugnd on Flickr*