Leeds gig review - LiveMusic.FM [Archive]

Uriel

07-02-2008, 11:21 AM

Wordcount kept down a bit on that one - it appears to be in line with other stuff on the site though. Here's the unabridged fanboy version:

Nick Harper at City Varieties, Leeds, with Jon Gomm as support. 2nd February 2008.

To the uninitiated, this gig must have come as something of a surprise. After all, you don't generally expect a concert with the main act and support both being male solo-singer-songwriter-acoustic-guitarists to feature the kind of bass that you feel as much as hear, soaring vocals that extend from a bluesy growl to sweetly up into the soprano range, and a sound as full, if not more so, than many four piece bands.

I remember being uninitiated. I saw Nick Harper for the first time in the acoustic tent at a summer festival. By the end of his 40 minute set, I had watched the tent go from being empty to the sides being removed as it went over capacity. The way I thought about the acoustic guitar, and what solo performers were capable of, had been completely redefined. Three years later, at the same festival (although the acoustic tent had grown), I left similarly affected by seeing Jon Gomm for the first time.

By Gomm's own admission, this was a special night for him: "Nick's a big influence on me, about fifty per cent - which is about as much as my parents." Indeed, the superficial similarities are not coincidental. Seeing Nick Harper perform was one of the elements that convinced Jon Gomm to make a career out of the acoustic guitar. To a certain extent, anyone could see and hear the influence, but Gomm exaggerated. He certainly isn't just a Harper clone. Professional experiences of playing everything from flamenco, to heavy metal and a jazz degree have seen to that.

Gomm began his set with 'Waterfall', a technically astounding combination of fret tapping, guitar body percussion and a middle verse in Urdu. Like most of his songs, it's an in-your-face argument against the idea that men can't multitask. While the techniques he uses might sound self indulgent, I can assure you they fit into in the context of his songs. Jon manages to use the guitar, plus a few effects, to sound like he's got a bass player and a drummer (and frequently other band members) accompanying him. If you see him play, it's you can see how he does it. How a human being can muster up the kind of speed, timing and accuracy to pull it off is another matter.

The set moved through a number of songs from Gomm's, hopefully soon to be released, second album. Notable mentions include 'Gloria' a song about "forbidden love", 'Afterglow' - "it's a bit jazz", and the sweet sounding 'Temporary'. The latter song is clearly influenced by Harper and includes Nick's trademark tuning peg bends, a technique both guitarists are able to use because of customised instruments.

Before starting 'Hey Child', Gomm warned the audience that "this song's a bit scary but it'll prepare you for Nick - he's scary for two hours". In some ways 'Hey Child' is indeed scary. It's the sort of song many songwriters would kill to come up with: a heartfelt lament about a homeless runaway that builds into a thunderous guitar solo sounding like it's played on an electric.

Under some circumstances this would have been the sort of support performance that was threatening to outshine the main act. Jon Gomm though, like much of the audience, was here to see Nick Harper and was checking the clock on his phone. The set finished with, quite literally, half a song. Jon's songs are usually very much a composition, played similarly each gig. Anyone familiar with 'Surrender' saw that it was cut short and Jon left the stage to enthusiastic applause.

After the interval, Nick Harper arrived on stage. He walked on, plugged in and, while introducing himself to the audience, played a dazzlingly quick and gorgeous sounding prelude on the guitar. "Wow!” I heard a female voice behind me say.

"What did you think of Jon Gomm then?" Nick asked, quickly responding along the same lines as most of the audience "****ing brilliant!". Before he'd started a song, Mr Harper had already won over anyone hadn't seen him before.

Harper's set began with 'There is no truth up in the mountains', which he referenced to his recent trip to Nepal in aid of the LoveHopeStrength Foundation, a cancer charity raising money for a Nepalese hospital. "Actually there is truth in the mountains..." said Nick, "if you take some with you".

While in Nepal, Harper and his co-trekkers had set the world record for the highest gig on earth, looking down on Everest base camp. "You can get higher" mentioned Nick and launched into "Aeroplane" one of a few songs about his dad.

And so, the night's main act got into his stride. Like Gomm, Harper also fills the stage with much more sound than seems possible from an acoustic guitar but he does it in a very different manner. He's capable of playing faster and harder than anyone else I've ever seen. From a right hand that becomes a blur when knocking out some of the rhythm parts to a left hand that skips over the fret board to dazzling effect, his style is almost impossible to replicate. Added to that - he's a master of improvisation. Frequently he will add pieces to songs that even regular attendees of his gigs aren't expecting. Nick's not all about playing hard and fast though. He uses the full dynamic range of the instrument - and its amplification - to great effect. The piano grade strings he uses on the lower end (usually tuned down to B rather than E) give a real thump. Nick doesn't usually hit the body of the guitar but it sounds like someone's thumping away on drums somewhere in the mix. Like Jon Gomm mentioned earlier, this man is scary.

Nick also changes pace very well. We had some of his usual crowd pleasers, like his medley of Elvis Presley's 'Guitar Man and Led Zeppelin’s 'Whole Lotta Love', complete with distorted solo, playing with his teeth, and a Robert Plant impression so accurate you'd swear the man was miked up off stage. 'Treasure Island' and 'Field of the Cloth of Gold' hint lyrically of Harper's folky roots. Perhaps the night's most beautiful moments come courtesy of 'Real Life', where Nick's falsetto soars with an enviable purity, or 'Imaginary Friend', a song Nick wrote following the death of his mother. It's songs like these that show that Nick is not afraid of backing off from the guitar techniques, the guitar thrashing and the loud bellowing and just performing something relatively simple yet wonderfully written.

Harper ended the set with another medley of crowd pleasers, 'Love is Music', 'Headless', Blur's 'Out of time' Jeff Buckley's 'Grace' and Led Zeppelin's 'Four Sticks' (Plant was hiding offstage again). He removed his guitar, took a bow, and thanked the audience. They were in no mood to let him leave the stage without a fuss but they got a little more than most of them were expecting for the encore "Please welcome back Jon Gomm".

Gomm re-entered to even more enthusiastic applause than he'd left to earlier. He played a little intro, dubbed 'Stairway to Barnsley' by Harper, as the sound engineers brought back his guitar to the right level. We were then treated to a version of Harper's 'Radio Silence', with Nick singing and providing an accurate rendition of his delicately finger picked studio version of the song and Gomm adding a very well judged lead guitar part and percussion. To see two such talented musicians co-operating so expertly was a great treat and will live long in the memory.

Nick Harper is currently touring and Jon Gomm plays a seemingly constant stream of gigs. Unfortunately, both of them playing together was a one off but I urge anyone to go and see either of them. Each of them seems to consistently put on some of the best live performances I’ve had the pleasure of witnessing.