Cocteau Twins come home

[Mr Richard Cooper <rich@cs.glasgow.ac.uk>]

... well nearly.  Last Thursday, the Cocteau Twins played
Glasgow Barrowlands.

The place was packed with large queues not able to get in.
Support was by the Frazier Chorus, but they had been and gone
by the time I got there, so I can't comment.

I was quite anxious about how the gig would go.  Whereas straight
ahead rock bands are going to be predictably reliable because
at some stage they do nothing but play gigs (check out Glasgow's
Primevals for a particularly fine example of this or one of the
best live bands I've ever seen - Nyah Fearties).  The Cocteaus
seem quintessentially a studio band, so there was a great poss-
ibility of disappointment.

However, from the first number, fears were disproven.  The four
guitars across the back did what I like guitars to do, create a
harmonic wash of sound (not whine away for four or five minutes
of soloing doing what Robert Johnson did better in 30 seconds
60 years ago) and Elizabeth's voice soared away on top of this.
The group also made good use of the drum machine (which kills
dance music but is exactly right for the kind of abstraction
the Cocteaus go in for).  The one caveat was that the voice
wasn't mixed high enough to gain maximum effect.

The pacing of the show was well judged with a gradual increase
in the emotional content.  The length (I didn't time it) felt
just right too.  I presume most of the numbers were from
Iceblink Luck, which I've yet to hear, and I'm not that good
at distinguishing Cocteau numbers anyway, so the only positive
identification I could make was Carolyn's Fingers.  This didn't
really matter as each number flowed easily into the next.

So, checkout the dates posted in these groups and go to whichever
one's nearest and have a fine time.

rich

PS - I was amazed at how little Elizabeth is.