Mark Lanegan – Academy – Live Review – 6-12-17 by Killian Laher

A regular visitor to these shores, Mark Lanegan returned to Dublin in the height of a European tour. First up was Duke Garwood, he played a brand of meandering, loose blues. Songs like Coldblooded were easy on the ear but didn’t really engage. Definitely not easy on the ear was Joe Cardamone, who presented a film entitled Holy War, over which he bawled fairly cringe-making lyrics, accompanied by pseudo-scary electronic music. Dreadful stuff to be honest.

Mark Lanegan and his band launched into a set of no-nonsense, gripping rock ‘n’ roll. Wasting little or no time on chit-chat, they opened with blistering versions of songs like Death’s Head Tattoo and Gravediggers’ Song which set the tone for the night. Lanegan and co reached back into a vast back catalogue for Hit the City and a positively warm version of One Hundred Days. Slow-burners like Sister, Come To Me and Bleeding Muddy Water worked really well, while the more uptempo Beehive and Ode to Sad Disco even got some of the crowd dancing. Lanegan was in fine voice, never more so than when he roared his way through a belting Nocturne. After finishing with a rousing version of Methamphetamine Blues, they returned briefly for one of the shortest encores you’d ever hear, the eerie 70 seconds of Bombed. Definitely left the audience wanting more, though there were few complaints, just a long line of people queuing up to buy merchandise afterwards.

Setlist Included –

Encore:

Bombed