tim bowness / henry fool at the borderline 11/07/14

What a wonderful evening. 

The Borderline holds perhaps 175 people so it was always going to be an intimate gig, but I was lucky enough to grab a spot leaning on Mike Bearpark's monitor. Couldn't be any closer. 

Matt Stevens opened the proceedings with some truly inventive and entertaining guitar work. Strumming and picking furiously, looping what he's played, and then playing more and more lines over the top of the loops. Terrific stuff. He seemed to enjoy himself and the crowd certainly did. 

Two of Italy's nosound were up next ('the best two', laughed Giancarlo at one point). With just washes of keyboards and Paolo's gentle acoustic guitar (plus a couple of instances of blindingly liquid electric guitar solos from Giancarlo) the duo cherrypicked a good half a dozen tracks from the excellent nosound catalogue. Well worth watching.

Then it was time for what Tim later called a sort of Frankenstein band - Tim Bowness and Henry Fool Featuring Colin Edwin - not a name that easily trips off the tongue! The tiny stage had to cope with Colin's monster bass, Myke Clifford's sax and flutes, Mike Bearpark's guitar and effects, Stephen Bennett's two tiered keyboards and Andrew Booker's supremely shiny drum kit (bass drum adorned with Henry Fool artwork - 'that's the stage set' laughed Tim). It was a bit of a squash. Tim Bowness was something like the still centre of the storm. He would easily draw the audience's attention when he was singing, his voice strong and deeply affecting, but during the musical passages and instrumentals I felt he seemed almost to melt into the background, something I suspect he'd be rather pleased about.

They opened with the thunderous tribal drumming of "The Warm Up Man Forever". I can't remember the exact set list but a storming "Time Travel In Texas" was somewhere near the start, and also quite early on in the set was one of many highlights, "Smiler At 50", one of the best tracks on Tim's new album Abandoned Dancehall Dreams and one of the very best songs I've heard in ages. The coda was immense, apocalyptic and extraordinary. The first Henry Fool album contained a song called "Judy's On The Brink" which was played tonight with the words altered to make it a prequel to the Smiler tracks. 'See how much more misery we can inflict on her', explained Tim. The band played a couple of superb pseudo jazz/rock pieces ('the Brand X revival starts here!') as well as a very unexpected and rocking "Housewives Hooked On Heroin" which Tim laughingly called the least loved No-Man song. Not tonight it wasn't!

For my money the best song of the evening was the gorgeous "Dancing For You" with a stunning guitar solo from Dr Bearpark, and some wonderful squally keyboards from Stephen Bennett. Throughout the gig Myke Clifford's sax and flutes frequently assisted where backing vocals would have been on the record and he did so here. "Dancing For You" is one of the prettiest saddest songs I've ever heard and this live version was just as good as I'd hoped it would be. 

"Mixtaped" closed the main set. Never my favourite No-Man song, but it seemed to work far better in a live setting being both broodingly intense and surprisingly loose and free. For an encore we had a blast through "Poppy Q" and the show ended with a beautiful "Songs Of Distant Summers", complete with an extended percussive coda. It was the perfect conclusion. 

Considering that some in the band have full time jobs (at some of the best Universities in the country!) they are a solidly coherent unit. But they've been playing together on and off for 25 years or so, so perhaps it's no surprise really. It's a shame, though, that they don't perform more in public as they are such a good band, with inventive, musical explorations, and superbly sensitive emotional backings for Tim Bowness' superb sensitive emotional songs.

All in all, a wonderful performance. More please!