Del Amitri in concert
Posted by Anura Samara, 2 February 2014
Del Amitri are back! And living in Geneva means I can catch a short flight to be able to see them in concert.
Well I spend my night times drinking and you spend your days in bed
And I guess it’s up to us to choose the methods by which we forget
Just Like A Man
And with those lyrics, first heard more than 20 years ago, my musical journey with Del Amitri started. I can still remember exactly where I was – I was on an ACTION bus at the bottom end of Outtrim Avenue in Calwell. I knew nothing about the song as radio stations are notoriously bad at back-announcing track titles and bands, but I knew I wanted a copy. So I then went into one of the record stores in the Tuggeranong Hyperdome to ask. Luckily, a very knowledgeable sales assistant understood my ramblings and could identify the track. Unluckily, the album – Change Everything – had long since passed off the charts and wasn’t available. So I then went down to the place that buys and sells second-hand CDs and found a copy.
For many weeks, I only listened to that one track. But slowly I started to listen to the tracks on either side and then listened to the whole album and realised I loved it. It had great music, mixing acoustic and rock and lyrics that you could understand, sometimes relate to but more often than not had to think about and sing along with.
Close-circuit cameras in department stores shoot the same movie every day.
And the stars of these films neither die nor get killed,
Just survive constant action replay
Nothing Ever Happens
I think the lyrics to many (most? all?) of Del Amitri’s songs talk about the inherent complexity and messiness of love. Sure, there are songs about love in there but its not just the polar opposites of finding love and losing love – there are all the other possibilities in the middle. And other songs talk about modern life numbing us to the realities that go on around us every day.
But if you sing along to those lyrics at some stage nearly every week for 20 years, at what stage does it become a habit and you are blind to what they are saying?
Life ain’t worth living,
Without a little love.
But a little love is never enough
Never Enough
Technically, Del Amitri had never split up – they had just stopped playing and recording when the record companies stopping ringing them. But given that it had been over 10 years since they had last played together, I figured that I would never be able to see them live in concert. But then in September 2013 I started to see rumours that they might be touring. As I follow a few Del Amitri fan pages and accounts on social media, I could follow the chatter until it was confirmed – Del Amitri would be back!
So it was with a lot of excitement that I booked airfares and a hotel for the Liverpool concert – Liverpool primarily being chosen because there are direct flights from Geneva and I originally thought that I might stay the weekend in the Wirral (that didn’t work out in the end). In the end, I was forced to have a day out in Liverpool but that was really just wasting time for the big concert.
I don’t want to waste time, thinking ‘bout it here and now
Nothing else matters but what we’ve got here and now.
Here and Now
The warm up act for the concert was The O’s. They were totally unexpected – a duo mainly featuring guitar and banjo, each play a percussion instrument with their foot. Sometimes a harmonic or keyboard was also thrown in. But the guitar and banjo combination with a solid beat from a bass drum was really good… in a hillbilly kind of way.
After that was a break which almost felt too long – I just wanted to see Del Amitri! And then there they were – no fancy fanfare or announcements, just five guys on the stage playing their first number.
Every little lie makes you look so dumb.
They tell you nobody has ever come as close as you’ve come,
So baby tonight you’ve got the right to feel so numb.
The Ones That You Love Lead You Nowhere
They opened with this track, which of course I knew from my first Del Amitri album. Most of the people around me stood, so I stood as well to be able to see the band, and we all just sang along with the track.
And then we sang and sang as they went through their numbers. It was interesting to see which ones they would choose, and they played a couple that I wouldn’t have put at the top of my playlist such as Stone Cold Sober and Move Away Jimmy Blue.
Of course for me, the highlight was seeing and hearing Just Like A Man – one song can transport me back 20 years. Other tracks that I really enjoyed hearing included:
- Make It Always Be Too Late,
- What I Think She Sees,
- Never Enough,
- Roll To Me,
- Tell Her This,
- Food For Songs,
- Not Where It’s At,
- Here And Now, and
- Driving With The Breaks On.
It’s a funny thing, but seeing these tracks played live and singing along to every single one has put me back in touch with the lyrics again. It’s just great writing, almost poetical but with the bonus of great music. And it also reminded me how many of the tracks have a harder edge – Del Amitri aren’t just an acoustic band.
There were a couple of tracks in there that I had completely forgotten about, including Just Before You Leave which is now up on my list of favourites.
And then it was over. We probably had nearly 2 hours of great music from them but of course I could have stayed for more!
Categories: Shows
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