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Rating:
I'm not going to tell you the background stories that led me to decide to go see Patrick Wolf because I can't describe them well.
The fact remains that at ten to seven on Halloween evening, I was already queuing with a crowd of indiekids who made me feel outdated and even a bit old. I enter, and since I'm alone because I'm a loser and the music I listen to is lame, and none of my acquaintances/roommates/colleagues in London wants to come with me, I sit in the most distant corner of the room and wait.
The first supporting band I can't remember, I mean I do remember them, but they didn't impress me enough to recall their name, I just know that there were three girls who were a bit cheeky, and the audience liked them enough. Right after, a skinny guy takes the stage holding a trombone so large that it made him look even smaller. He sets up his sparse instrumentation and begins to play the same note over and over, after a while, probably thanks to the help of ghosts, the loop he played continues on its own, and he starts weaving beneath it with the same trumpet, all very relaxed and psychedelic as if it were a Yume Bitsu session. I liked it and it received a lot of applause from the audience.
Now the stage is properly decorated in Halloween style with some skeletons and the usual smiling pumpkins. The violinist comes on stage and starts playing the first sweet and melancholic notes. Patrick arrives hooded, and there's an instant tribute of applause. He waves, quickly sits at the keyboard, and starts singing. I had always thought of him as a slightly more English, refined, eclectic, and digital Bright Eyes. Still, equally snobby. I need to change my opinion about the character and the artist. He proves to be very approachable with the audience who adore him like a god and even cracks some jokes that I'm the only loser not to understand. It's not the keyboards or the synthesizer, it's not the violin or even the guitar, but it's his beautiful warm and enveloping voice that is the central element around which the whole show revolves. We are all effortlessly lifted and carried through the enchanted and slightly desolate valleys that are his songs.
After revisiting his two albums, he grants us only one emotional encore and leaves the same way he came.
Silent, refined, and at the same time overwhelming.
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