SETLIST
Encores
COMMENTS/FURTHER
INFORMATION
Submitted by Derek Bolton and Paul Hutchinson who adds:
There were two microphones at the side of the stage during the main set - pointing outwards. I can only assume that means he's thinking about live recordings. Which may mean my out of tune singalong backing vocals to Wondering Where The Lions Are are may show up on a recording somewhere!
David Buckna and Scott Hanson sent in this review by Steve Stockman, which is available at The Phantom Tollbooth.
Bruce Cockburn
close up. My word! I was in the front, right underneath the stage. My friend
said I could have looked up his nose. I guess I could, but
from the moment he walked on stage I was completely distracted. Cockburn
has
this unique combination of being an articulate poet and a brilliant
guitarist. Not many can put those two attributes together. He also
has--though it might be said a lot of his songs don't have a radio-friendly
sound--the added ability to pull out a memorable melody. There is so much
to
admire that you don't know what to concentrate on. He beats out the rhythm
on his guitar, and with near sleight of hand (you wonder is there another
guitarist behind the curtain) picks intricate tunes, then overlays them with
rhyming couplets that any great poet would dream of. And we are not finished
yet... into these couplets he sets social commentary, political rage and
spiritual theology as well as being able to look in the depth of an ordinary
man's heart and soul and talk about love and loneliness, joy and pain.
Tonight Cockburn
unleashed sermonette after sermonette, making me think that
it would make a great book to look at his theology of sin and redemption.
He
is ever aware of a fallen humanity and describes it well: "Terrible
deeds
done in the name of tunnel vision and fear of change / surely are
expressions of a soul that's turned its back on love" (Put
It In Your
Heart) and "I was born on a Friday and you can't fix me" (Mystery).
He is
also aware that in the midst of despair, we can find a spiritual hope that
allows us to dance in the dragons jaw, "thinking about eternity, in
the
middle of this ecstasy" (Wondering
Where The Lions Are)
and "What does it
take for the heart to explode into stars / One day we'll wake to remember
how lovely we are" (Wait No More)
and always looking beyond with
eschatological hopefulness: "Today these eyes scan bleached-out land
/ For
the coming of the outbound stage / Pacing the cage" (Pacing
The Cage) and "Fold me into you, you know where I'm dying to be /
When my ship sets sail
on that ocean of deep mystery" (Wait
No More).
And as well
as traversing the soul, a Cockburn gig allows more air travel than a television
holiday programme. Tonight he took us to Tokyo in
the song named after that city and then to Nicaragua. Dust
And Diesel is
an
intriguing choice for this journey. As fans no doubt clamoured for the
better known song of his eighties trip through Central America as documented
on Stealing Fire, If I Had A Rocket
Launcher, he gives us one
of the less
esteemed brothers. Set lists of people with 25 albums will always have you
picky about what is left out. Tonight I was more surprised and thrilled by
what was included. The songs from You've
Never Seen Everything particularly
came alive with the more stripped back sound.
From Central America we headed to the Middle East. Cockburn is not an artist who prostitutes world events just to feed his songs. He likes to go and see for himself. This Is Baghdad is one such song; in it he simply describes the scene in his best travelogue way. How many times after a song like this have I found myself in some far off place staring at beauty and injustice side by side and whispering, "I wish Bruce Cockburn was here." When he gets us to Baghdad he then takes us right into his commentary on it where he asks George Bush and his aids to tell God what they've done (Tell The Universe). It is an interesting take because rather than damn the White House power brokers out of hand, he almost sympathizes and encourages them to seek help for their psychological insecurities: "You've been projecting your shit at the world / Self-hatred tarted up as payback time / You can self destruct--that's your right / But keep it to yourself if you don't mind."
Starting with a mystical tune from the late seventies, Wondering Where The Lions Are, Cockburn ended (before encores) with another mystical song, this time his most recent, Mystery, from his most recent album--Life Short Call Now. It is a gorgeous spiritual search and find and invitation to join in that. In the midst of the awareness of his brokenness and apprehensions of this world and the next he sings: "Infinity always gives me vertigo / And fills me up with grace." Everything else he says and sings is wrapped in the spiritual grace and wonder of those songs. Particularly interesting tonight is his environmental anthem If A Tree Falls, which gained maybe the biggest applause of the evening. The more recent Beautiful Creatures is also powerfully poignant.
One other comment before conclusions. His introduction to Life Short Call Now gave me an insight into the loneliness of the road. It lead us and Bruce to remark how many road songs he has written from and about and how much of his life then is between places on his own. There is a sacrifice to this life. It is not at all glamour and wealth and fun for the troubadour who heads out into the world to share his insights. And I guess it made me more thankful for Bruce Cockburn. Yes, I had paid a ticket price, but he has given much more for us to meet at the front of that stage in Belfast's Empire. He's a long way from home.
I have written it before, but while introducing Bruce on stage at the Greenbelt Festival I declared, before the man himself that he had "prophesied into my world, provoked my mind, preached to my heart and pastored my soul". And that is exactly what he did tonight. Like no one else can. His musical adeptness and his poetic articulation is drenched in spiritual and worldly wisdom that tells us much of what we need to hear. So Bruce, I know it's lonely out here, but don't make it so many years before you come back.