The Magnetic Fields

Cult-status band, The Magnetic Fields, is playing The Barbican tonight as part of a European tour. Their live gigs are few and far between (there are only three UK dates this time) so the venue is packed and full of anticipation.

The current regular line-up comprises five band members: Los Angeles-based Stephin Merritt on vocals and ukulele, Claudia Gonson on vocals and keyboard, Sam Davol on cello, John Woo on acoustic guitar and Shirley Simms on vocals and autoharp. They are all casually dressed and seated in a row, Merritt in his flat cap on the far right.



Tonight Gonson introduces most of the songs, counts the band in and shares lead vocals with Simms and Merritt, and when they're all singing together, the brighter female voices contrast well with Merritt's deadpan baritone. The understated, acoustic presentation allows all the lyrics to be heard. Merritt, as well as being a multi-instrumentalist, and orchestrating and producing, is renowned for his songwriting skills. A lot of the songs, on first listen, may sound morose, and are tinged with sadness, but are also self-effacing, humorous and wry observations of love.

Early on in the set, they play possibly their most recognised track, 'I Don't Want to Get Over You', from their 1999 three-volume concept album '69 Love Songs', which is introduced as "a complete lie from beginning to end."

It feels slightly uncomfortable applauding wildly after each song as Merritt has to stick his finger in his left ear as he reportedly suffers from hyperacusis, an oversensitivity to certain sounds. This might explain Gonson's story of the previous evening's gig in Leamington - the venue had put up notices asking for complete silence for The Magnetic Fields, which meant that during the first half of their set, the songs were greeted with stony silence.

Simms sings the brilliantly funny 'The Nun's Litany' from 'Distortion', one of the recent trilogy of 'no synth' albums. This track's described as being about "sex or lack thereof" and features lyrics like "I want to be a dominatrix, which isn't like me, but I can dream, learn S and M, and all those gay tricks, and men would pay me to make them scream."

There is a "perky" song called 'Shipwrecked' from The Gothic Archies album (a side project), which accompanied the Lemony Snicket books. It's full of black humour where Merritt sings about being lost at sea and wanting so badly to be shipwrecked on an island with the object of his affection, that he decapitates the rest of the crew.

'Walk a Lonely Road', taken from their most recent release, 'Realism', has quite a touching sentiment: "Walk a lonely road with me, I will walk with you; half as lonely we will be when we walk as two" and Gonson tells us that an 'inspiration shop' wants to use it on mugs and tea towels, and they were debating whether to tell them that it's actually about two vampires who go around mutilating people.

Amelia Fletcher of the Tender Trap joins the band for 'Looking for Love (in the Hall of Mirrors)', from The 6ths' project (where guest vocalists sing Merritt's compositions) - it's about hanging out in gay bars, which seems to be where Merritt pens most of his lyrics.



Gonson introduces the excellent 'Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget' as appealing to 18th century Scottish poetry scholars. The clever lyrics work well sung as two voices – Merritt sings "… I'll turn in to a vampire and kiss you on the neck" and Gonson responds with "… I'll turn into a silver cross and send thee back to Heck", followed by "I'll turn in to God himself and then you'll come to me" and "well I won't believe in you and then where will you be."

Gonson has to take the lead vocals for 'Night Falls Like a Grand Piano', which was originally sung by Clare Grogan on one of The 6ths' albums as they'd forgotten to invite her.

There are two songs in the encore – the first '100000 Fireflies' was cheekily dedicated to British Airways, its negotiation team and especially the baggage claim staff. For the final song of the evening 'Papa was a Rodeo', Merritt is the most animated he's been for the whole set as he leaves his stool to sing at the front of the stage and does a few throwaway twirls and flicks of the mic lead.

There's a notable absence of strutting frontman and glamour, and it's not a very visually engaging show, but then the performance has quite rightly been all about the songs.

Set List:

Kiss Me Like You Mean It
You Must Be Out of Your Mind
The Luckiest Guy on the Lower East Side
Interlude
Better Things
I Don't Want to Get Over You
Acoustic Guitar
The Nun's Litany
I Don't Really Love You Anymore
I Don't Know What to Say
Shipwrecked
Walk a Lonely Road
I'm Sorry I Love You
Looking for Love (in the Hall of Mirrors) - Amelia Fletcher

***

Xylophone Track
We Are Having a Hootenanny
The Dolls' Tea Party
Wi' Nae Wee Bairn Ye'll Me Beget
Always Already Gone
All the Umbrellas in London
The One You Really Love
Night Falls Like a Grand Piano
Fear of Trains
I'm Tongue Tied
Long Vermont Roads
From a Sinking Boat

***

100000 Fireflies
Papa Was a Rodeo

FUTURE GIGS