A Mark Lanegan show is something like a Christmas selection box. Having worked his way through so many exciting collaborations in his career, the man has a vast back catalogue at his fingertips – so you’re bound to get a good variety of treats.
He might decide to draw from his Screaming Trees work, or perhaps his time as an extra voice to Queens of the Stone Age – or he might play some of his own solo work or that with Isobel Campbell, something from his Gutter Twins project with Greg Dulli, or even last year’s Soulsavers album with Rich Machin and Ian Glover.
Tonight, supported for the most part simply on guitar by Dave Rosser, it becomes clear that it doesn’t matter what he decides to select from this vast array. Because regardless, Lanegan’s voice retains that deep hypnotic quality which makes all of his music so compelling. Stripped down with nothing but an acoustic guitar to support it, it growls its way seductively through the room; with a surprisingly delicate touch on the melody. You get the impression he could sing the phone book well. But instead Lanegan’s voice is teamed with his canny ability to craft intriguing stories and surprising imagery. A large part of the set is given over to bits and pieces from his acclaimed Bubblegum album – from which ‘One Hundred Days’ gets a murmered sing along and one of he biggest cheers of the night.
Lanegan never seems one for crowd interaction – and indeed he just comes on and gets down to the job at hand, barely referencing his enraptured audience at all during the show. But he can’t help but let a split-second crack of a smile light that ever-so-serious face when one guy shouts out that he’s “A BIG SEXY BASTARD”.
Although the set isn’t long, there’s also a generous encore to contend with finishing with a marginally slower but still rollocking version of ‘Hanging Tree’ by Queens of the Stone Age. No matter what Lanegan had offered up tonight, this show would have been a winner hung on the power of his voice. That the set matched up to that is just an added bonus.