Echo & the Bunnymen at the Nokia Theater

Whereas LALive scored a victory with Club Nokia, I feel they have missed a great opportunity with the Nokia Theater... The theater is a huge, cavernous black box without soul or character, and had the balcony not been closed due to lack of sales we would have been at least 100 yards from the stage. As it was, we were relocated to the left side of the floor where there were many half empty rows...

Anyways, it's been 25 years since 'Ocean Rain' - the Bunnymen's seminal 1984 album, but it remains an important work of art. When the rest of contemporary music was embracing 'synth culture', the Bunnymen bucked the trend and released an LP full of strings and subtle acoustic touches. Indeed, it's difficult to imagine any of The Bunnymen's post-punk peers such as The Sound or Joy Division doing anything remotely similar... The LP has aged remarkably well and thanks to a timeless production, still sounds as fresh and vibrant as it did all those years ago. Live, the sound could have been better allowing the orchestral parts to breathe a little rather than being swamped by guitars, but I guess it was never going to sound as good as the LP. The stage lighting was a little boring - the dark oceanic blue lights only interupted by the occasional blast of strobes but the 'Ocean Rain' part of the show was accompanied by a stunning slide slow of black and white pictures of the early Bunnymen.

After 'Ocean Rain' the second part of the show was a best of collection which included 'The Cutter', 'The Back of Love', 'Zimbo (All my colours)', 'All That Jazz', 'Rescue', 'Villiers Terrace' and the brilliant 'Show of strength'... Only the second encore didn't quite hit the spot featuring a lumpy 'Nothing last forever' (except this song - thanks Sean!) and their biggest US hit 'Lips like sugar'...