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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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JOHN
HIATT
The Barbican,
London
October 22nd
2007
Did
I ever tell you Serge, that I was once taken to
what I can only describe as a counterfeit hotel?
It was in China – a Haiyatt
hotel – not to be confused of course
(and I’m sure it wasn’t) with a Hyatt
hotel. I’d also observe that the whisky
they served in their KTV bar was certainly not
to be confused with Johnnie Walker Black Label.
This is all a long way round to saying that there’s
certainly nothing phoney about John
Hiatt. Here’s an artist who
really wears his heart on his sleeve – warts
(and there have been quite a few of those in his
turbulent career) and all. And he’s particularly
exposed tonight as he’s as unplugged as
any artist can be when they are alone on stage
with only their cables, trailing from a succession
of mouth-watering Gibson acoustics, for company. |
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Now I’ll tell the truth. I’m short of
time. In a hurry. Too many reviews to write. So
I’m going to keep this short. Because he simply
was quite awesome. Charming and engaging (“Well”
he said, surveying an almost full Barbican auditorium,
“Well, this is a fancy place. What the hell
are we doing here?”), warm and humorous in
his reminiscences (“We were lower middle class
… well, my father was a gambler, so when he
was up we were upper middle class …) he had
in the audience in his grasp from the opening bars
of ‘Drive south’, accompanied by his
wonderfully rattly Gibson jumbo. He occasionally
complained of forgetfulness as he stumbled over
a few of his lyrics (“Man” he said by
way of explanation, “when I was young I really
did some damage”) but for the most part was
word and note perfect (in case you’re not
aware, Mr Hiatt can truly sing as if blessed by
the gods) – and his guitar playing was hugely
accomplished – the way he filled the stage
and the theatre reminding me of Roddy Frame’s
excellent gig at the Bush a couple of years ago. |
| Hiatt
has songs a-plenty to sing for us. Some –
‘I just want to go on with you’ and
‘Thank you’ (get a sense of some spiritual
contentment here?) are new, in the course of being
recorded for a forthcoming album. Then there are
classics from his collaborations with Nick Lowe
and Ry Cooder such as ‘Thing called love’
(apparently he’s still benefiting from the
royalties accrued from Bonnie Raitt’s cover
version) in which he notably rhymes “Queen
of Sheba” with “amoeba”. |
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| And
a litany of his top tunes – including - ‘Tennessee
plates’ (accompanied by an anecdote about
stealing cars – “Shit – I can’t
believe I was so stupid as to do that”), ‘Riding
with the King’, ‘Memphis in the meantime’,
the astonishingly powerful ‘Have a little
faith in me’ (sung at the keyboard), ‘Lipstick
sunset’ (more shades of Nick Lowe) and from
his latest album, the eponymous ‘Master of
disaster’. They’re all great songs,
but none so moving as the deeply autobiographical
‘Crossing muddy waters’ |
| Hiatt.
Fake? Phoney? Not a bit of it. Music simply doesn’t
get more brutally honest than this. As the critics
would say – “a triumph”. -
Nick Morgan (photographs by Kate, cartoon Jeff
Mallett) |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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