大象传媒

A mere four months after gracing the under ground stage of the Mandela Hall, Adam Green takes the trip upstairs to the more intimate environment that is the Speakeasy. It certainly is a step down in terms of numbers from the near capacity crowd experienced while supporting The Cribs but is in no way a less suiting environment for the madcap antics of Adam Green.

An element that is a little less provocative and stimulating than our headline acts performance is that of support band The Brothers Movement. They take to stage to a meagre crowd that keep their distance throughout the set and rarely build any rapport with the band, minus two screaming girls at the front.

Their swaggering Rock N'Roll lends as much to The Verve as it does to Primal Scream and Kasabian. It's the typical leather clad macho Rock 'n' Roll that has been tried/tested/tried/tested to successful commercial results for the past twenty years. The Brothers Movement are exceedingly good at what they do but its impact is lost on this reviewer as I have bared witness to it done so many times before.

Adam Green's trusty backing band quickly take to the stage after The Brothers Movement, luring us in with a pretty little (seemingly) impromptu jam, then from behind the curtain bounds Adam Green dressed in skinny flares, a studded jacket, a bright pair of red shoes and an equally flamboyant if not extremely mischievous smile. His on stage persona is equally as twisted, dejected and eccentric as the subject matter of the songs on show but still remains to be totally engaging and extremely loveable at the same time.

The whole back catalogue is on show tonight with tracks from first solo album 'Garfield' up to recently released 'Minor Love'. Classic tracks such as 'Emily' and 'Dance With Me' receive the sort of vivacious reaction you come to expect from an Adam Green concert, while tracks from new album 'Minor Love' are extremely well received. 'Buddy Bradley' and 'Cigarette Burns Forever' from 'Minor Love' show that the masses are still in tune with Green's new work even if some of the critics aren't.

What really impresses about tonight's show is the way Green can manipulate an audience. Before the gig was even half way through our protagonist had stage dived a handful of times, sampled drinks from members of the crowd and even made an appeal on behalf of his red shoe which had been commandeered during one fateful crowd surf. On a normal night we would think that these were the traits of a hopeless lunatic drunk, but in concert it's the work of an delightfully unhinged entertainer.

Philip Taggart
Photo: Emma Campbell