After ten long months on the road, Jamie Lidell found himself in Melbourne on Saturday night playing the last show of his tour. With his band Street Material and assistance from DJ Declan Kelly, Lidell treated the Corner Hotel, full to the brim, to a loud, experimental and very funky eight track set which both showcased his talents as a performer and revealed that his fabled magic only lasts so long.
Support came from the very weird performance art stylings of Supermelody – think a white guy wearing pajamas MC-ing to some manufactured electronica on his keyboard. This stuff is strictly bedroom material, and there was was too much hip thrusting not to be offensive. It made me want to do the opposite of dance, which, basically meant standing in confused awe.
With the stage a mess of tangled wires, stands, instruments, and in the middle, a lone laptop clearly labeled JIM, the set opened with a drum beat – no, a drum roll, which heralded the entrance of the god-like Lidell, tall, dark, chiseled and dressed in gold brocade. He’s an imposing and alluring figure, with a voice sensitive, soulful, warm like honey and of the most old-school vintage; to hear it live was an experience completely beyond listening to his recordings. Opening with the deep, distorted grooves of Where’d You Go?, Lidell bashed, bleeped and buzzed on his keyboard; his songs are a fantastic amalgamation of grating noise and melodic warmth, with sounds constantly overlapping and intertwining. While the sound wasn’t great during Figured Me Out, Lidell used a vocal filter to distort and manipulate his voice to astounding effect.
Like a true journey into sound, A Little Bit More and When I Come Back Around, both from his 2005 album Multiply, were highlights of the set. With unexpected sounds coming from everywhere, Lidell turned these tracks on their heads, creating not only sensory sounds but heavily textured ones. The latter track in particular was a joy to listen to, with Lidell adding some old world flavour to traditional beat boxing, using a loop and utilizing some truly underrated cowbell. Lidell is a perfomer who feels the music and filters it through himself to the audience. He frowns, pouts and invigorates the words he sings with soulfulness, strongly contrasting the computer generated beats with his humanism.
While the performance felt like a celebration of noise in all of its many forms, somehow the audience seemed disinterested in the musical experimentation which Lidell weaves so seamlessly into his soul music. What interested them was the melodic versions heard on his latest two albums, Multiply and JIM. After tracks Another Day, Wait For Me and the beautifully emotive Game For Fools, Lidell closed the set with Multiply and as many people hopped on stage as could fit. There was more excitement and involvement during this song than there was during the rest of the performance – no one, up until this point, felt prepared to get loose and enjoy themselves. While Lidell was wonderful to watch, and there is no doubting his mastery, energy and musicianship, there just wasn’t the magic that there should have been considering his talent. Indeed, playing the Corner after 10 months around the world must have felt a little underwhelming. However, the noisy soul/funk jam session that took place there will most definitely be remembered fondly.
