Anthony Gibbons
Anthony is a music fan and former music industry insider who contributed articles to many a now-defunct music magazine or website. He tried his hand at music PR but wasn’t particularly good at it (editor’s note: Mr Gibbons’ words not mine!) Away from music, Anthony is a freelance advertising and marketing executive. Outside of this, he can be found walking the dog, toiling on the allotment, or fending off old age with running and yoga.
Sonic songsmith Jane Weaver and band brought new LP Love In Constant Spectacle to Birmingham as part of their first headline UK tour in over two years.
Pre-gig, Jane Weaver and band dined at Shabab’s, one of the few curry restaurants left standing in Birmingham’s Balti Triangle. A bellyful of balti might explain a slightly sluggish start to tonight’s set. It’s more likely down to playing the superb new album live for the first time and revisiting their back catalogue after a touring hiatus.
More recent LPs played live
Tonight’s set trips through recent, and critically lauded albums, Flock, Modern Kosmology, and The Silver Globe. Justifiably, given its recent release, the focus is on Spectacle.
Overcoming a stop/start flow, Weaver’s band (Andrew Cheetham, Matt Grayson, Joel Nicholson, and Raz Ullah) kick into gear letting these songs really soar. ‘The Axis & The Seed’ and ‘Is Metal,’ played back-to-back, weave intricate patterns from simple rhythms. The
underlying funk of ‘Flock’, from the album of the same name, is brought to the fore, bouncing through a flight of flute samples and taking the song into a decidedly danceable direction.
An emotional show
To this kinetic energy, emotional heft is added. ‘Slow Motion’, from Modern Kosmology – ‘Sometimes everything is amazing/Then the silence reminds us we are lost’ – aligns perfectly with the melancholic ‘Univers’, dissolving into a shimmering sunset of a song. Indeed, when Weaver sings, ‘The view is changing to/The super imposed’ ‘Univers’ could be soundtracking the golden hour of a summer festival, when the sun slowly starts to set.
If that was the closing song there would be few complaints. Instead, three songs finish a 16-song set. ‘Family of the Sun’, gives the familiar drone and synth of her back catalogue a looser feel before setting off at speed. The aforementioned ‘Flock’, and, thanks to a disagreement over a middle eight, ‘I Need A Connection’ gets a two-part, near-10 minute run through, finishing with a spacey sprint.
Final thoughts
Tonight’s gig is not perfect, punctuated, perhaps, by overlong gaps between songs. However, this space also gives the songs room to breathe. Weaver’s songwriting ability and voice are brought to the centre. Intricate and densely packed songs from past albums are freed up thus matching the elasticity of the loose grooves of Spectacle.
Jane Weaver takes the new LP on tour throughout the UK and Ireland until late May 2024. Love In Constant Spectacle is out now on Fire Records. Read our album review here.
Setlist
Quantify
Perfect Storm
Revolution of Super Visions
Emotional Components
Love In Constant Spectacle
Heartlow
Romantic Worlds
Mission Desire
Modern Kosmology
The Axis & The Seed
Is Metal
Editor’s note: art lovers are welcome to pitch ideas for independent reviews of all types: music, film, books, art exhibitions. Not of your own work though. No payment I am afraid. Email: contact@evenbutterfliesmakeasound.com