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Johnny Marr, Wet Leg & more @ BBC 6 Music Festival | Review | Live4ever
Johnny Marr swaggers on stage clutching his trusty Jaguar Fender, looking resplendent in dark patterned satin shirt.
www.live4ever.uk.com
"Yet tonight’s headline set is far from an exercise in nostalgia, as the guitarist himself told Stuart Maconie earlier in the day: ‘I’ve got a big repertoire now. People know the new songs and there’s some old stuff I love playing.’
Marr swaggers on stage clutching his trusty Jaguar Fender, looking resplendent in dark patterned satin shirt, launching into one-off single Armatopia, warming things up before an immediate crowd-pleaser in the form of Panic. Yet, that gift aside, the first segment of the set is about 2022.
Despite its intricacies, Marr makes the neo-electric funk of Sensory Street look effortless, while the righteous Spirit Power and Soul sees him gesture both towards the crowd and to the sky.
The newer material stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the older work, which makes up the remainder of the set barring a brooding Walk Into The Sea and the poptastic Easy Money, his most successful song for some years.
The opening riff of This Charming Man is nearly drowned out by the cries of acknowledgement from the crowd, while he and his band elongate and develop Getting Away With It expertly.
It’s by no means a one-man show; despite the spotlights, Jack Mitchell veers between skins and the drum pads for the songs that have an electronic tilt accordingly, while Scott Docherty’s keys provide the texture and nuance.
However, Marr’s talent continues to reign supreme, whether he’s setting his effects pedal with his feet while singing or effortlessly strumming during Get The Message. He never does more than is necessary, but every move is devastatingly effective. Marr may not regard his voice as a key strength, but he wrenches it to add the drama that his bombastic 2015 cover of Depeche Mode’s I Feel You requires.
Arguably the most moving moment of the whole weekend arrives at the end of the main set as he dedicates There Is A Light That Never Goes Out to the ‘Foos family’; ‘We miss you, Taylor. We won’t forget you,’ which doesn’t require extra tenderness but gets it anyway.
The encore consists of a swinging Bigmouth Strikes Again and an extended How Soon Is Now?, on which Marr wigs out in his classy way, toggling his E string and adding country tones to an already astonishing piece of music.
A jewel in Marr’s crown, much like 6 Music is to the BBC."