Malcolm Middleton, Cabaret Voltaire, Edinburgh (27th Aug 2009)

// September 3rd, 2009 // Edinburgh, Music Reviews

It has actually been a fairly good year for gigs in Edinburgh so far. Scotland’s capital city has long been living in the shadow of Glasgow when it comes to live music, both in terms of the venues available and the calibre of artists those venues tend to attract. This year I’ve seen superb Edinburgh shows by Antony and the Johnsons, PJ Harvey and John Parish, Elbow, Nick Harper, Kristin Hersh and also, last Thursday evening (27th Aug) Malcolm Middleton.

First attracting public notice as the guitarist from the now disbanded Arab Strap, Malcolm has forged a pretty successful solo career and has released five albums of material under his own name in the last 7 years. Self-deprecating, darkly humorous and laced with ironic jibes at modern “cultural” life, his music is nowhere near as miserablist in timbre as his public reputation would have you believe. It is this reputation that has prompted him to state that this will be his last album release of this kind. He feels “pigeon-holed” and wants to experiment with new musical directions. Having heard him play a couple of instrumental solo acoustic pieces, including the wonderful Returning, I’m looking forward to hearing what he comes up with.

Cabaret Voltaire‘s not a great venue if you are merely of average height and want to actually see the stage while the gig is in progress. I often resort to standing on the steps leading down from the bar. You get the best view but have to put up with folk coming and going past you all the way through the gig. The music from Malcolm and his band is great and infects the crowd with a jokey bonhomie. Lots of songs from the new(ish) album Waxing Gibbous, with a few older numbers thrown in for good measure. There’s even a tongue-in-cheek rendition of Brian Adams’ Run To You as a closer. The album itself now ranks as my favourite of Malcolm’s so far, overtaking 2005′s Into The Woods. You can get Malcolm’s album for a bargain £8 from Full Time Hobby records.

After the gig we repair to the Jinglin Geordie pub on Fleshmarket Close. Nicely tucked away from the braying festival hordes lining the Royal Mile. A nice wee pub for the discerning Edinburgh tippler.

I didn’t keep a note of the set list on the night but, from memory, it was something like this:

Red Travellin’ Socks
Subset Of The World
Box & Knife
Loneliness Shines
Kiss At The Station
Shadows
Zero
Choir
Speed On The M9
A Brighter Beat
We’re All Going To Die
Blue Plastic Bags
Ballad Of Fuck All
Don’t Want To Sleep Tonight
Run To You

Email me if the list is wrong and I’ll rectify.

photo of Malcolm at the Cabaret Voltaire by Martin Senyszak