Pj Harvey at Ferrara
Polly Jean Harvey‘s long-awaited show as part of Ferrara’s annual ‘Sotto le Stelle’ (under the stars) summer season of outdoor concerts is her only date in Italy this year. I was there to swoon and croon (sotto voce!).
The last time I saw her in concert was in 1992 as support to Family Cat in a small club in Camden Town just before the release of her debut album, Dry. Then she was shy yet assertive and while she still has the same self-contained detachment all these years on she has matured into an assured and charismatic performer. She has a real stage presence and has developed this cool way of starting some songs from the back of the stage and then walking slowly forward to the microphone.
She is still a woman of few words and speaks only at the end to introduce her three-man band and to say “Thank you for listening”.
Why should we care as the music speaks volumes and she really inhabits her songs. And what songs! Her last album, Let England Shake, already has the status of a modern classic so it was a privilege to hear all the tracks played live (for good measure she also threw in the b-side The Big Guns Called Me Back Again)
Some, like On Battleship Hill and Written on the Forehead, sounded even better live although The Colour of the Earth, with Mick Harvey (no relation) on vocals, still sounds like the weakest track and makes a lame song to close with.
England (the song) also died a death due to a lousy sound system with rumbling bass notes which plagued the whole show . PJ and band definitely need a better team of technicians; the two guys who tuned the instruments looked like zombies and tried to look purposeful with their gaffer tape but gave the impression they were just pretending to know what they were doing. If Polly was frustrated by these problems, she didn’t show it; she was a model of calmness and serenity throughout. Continue reading
