Peter Viney's Blog

Kiefer Sutherland

O2 Academy. Bournemouth
Saturday 3rd August 2019

SET LIST

Rebel Wind
Can’t Stay Away
Something You Love
Reckless & Me
Shirley Jean
Open Road
Faded Pair of Blue Jeans
Blame It On Your Heart (PattyLovless)
Not Enough Whiskey
Truth In Your Eyes
I’ll Do Anything
Saskatchewan
This Is How It’s Done
All She Wrote
Honey Bee (Tom Petty)
Down In A Hole
encore
Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door (Bob Dylan)
Agave

All images are phone and lo-res here

The O2 Academy is actually in Boscombe (Bournemouth sounds so much better) and is  the former Boscombe Hippodrome then The Royal Ballrooms, built in 1895. My mum and dad used to go to dances there in the 1930s and 1940s and 1950s. My friends’ soul band used to play there in the 60s. I worked in the pub next door in 1969. We saw David Bowie there as Ziggy Stardust in the early 70s. We might have seen him there in the 60s … Davy Jones & The Lower Third were often on the same bill as my friends’ soul band. We saw Sly & The Family Stone (LINK TO REVIEW) there in 2007, probably the worst performance by anyone that I have ever seen.

My old friend, the late John Wetton, who was in that late 60s soul band,  was inspired to write the song The Devil & The Opera House by it (on the Raised in Captivity album).. When it was built, the owners of the shops opposite saw it as a den of iniquity and placed a devil gargoyle on the roof facing it in 1896.

The devil …

It’s still there …the building became ‘The Opera House’ in 1997. Boscombe is somewhat rough as a neighbourhood, so much so that a metal Dr Who style police box was placed in the street as a deterrent to street crime.

… and the “opera house”

The neighbourhood should not be too much of a shock for Jack Bauer. He had to function in far worse areas in 24.  Security at the venue is very tight. I had to remove my Dylan cap, and squirmed as the poor guy had to run his finger round the sweat stained interior. Full pat down too, I kind of approve, though at my age you’d think a shiv in the sock unlikely . You feel safe, though I assume the search of the hat band was looking for drugs rather than concealed weapons. Very polite security guys.

It’s a surprise to find Kiefer Sutherland there. He got a large and enthusiastic audience and as we were checking out parking in the afternoon, people with camp chairs started the queue at 2.30 p.m. for a 7 p,m. doors open. All standing venue.

My wife had heard him on the radio, and found a video of Something You Love on the net from Reckless & Me. We never knew he was a singer, looked him up and discovered him playing so near to home. Then we bought the album.

The reason we don’t go to the O2 Academy is not the neighbourhood (it’s not THAT bad), but the sound quality. I’ve never heard anyone get decent sound here. Going right back to Bowie, he was incredible and crystal clear in Southampton a few months earlier, muzzy and distorted at this venue. It hasn’t improved in 46 years. Simply, the ceiling is very high indeed in a narrow hall with two floors of deep balconies on three sides.  It needs baffles like those that improved the Albert Hall, I guess. It echoes badly, instruments blend into each other and tonight was no exception. As ever the numbers with higher volume exacerbated the noisiness and fuzzed up the vocals. We decided to stand right in front of the soundboard too, because that should have the best sound. I’d normally blame the sound crew, but every band here has the problem. We missed the support (deliberately- because standing for two and a half hours is enough for me without standing through the support act) which was on its last song as we arrived. They sounded awful – sound mix rather than playing. Far worse than the main act. They ended at 8.30, and there seemed nothing much to do on stage, but we stood and sweated for half an hour until 21.00 on the dot, exactly the start time I’d guessed.

There was no fuss about photography … lots of the audience taking photos and videos.

Kiefer has the rock star thing. you never feel it’s a vanity project for an actor, though his intros are more interesting and articulate than normal. It’s been his main job for at least three years now, and he toured the UK last year- not that I knew. He has a first rate little band … electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, keyboards / accordion. The keyboard player often used a classic Hammond sound, piano less often. He also played accordion and mandolin. Kiefer bookends his show on electric guitar, but plays acoustic rhythm guitar for the main part. Looking at Setlist com, this is also the “long show.” Other sets are four or five songs shorter. He radiated thoroughly enjoying himself.

The first song. Rebel Wind. Kiefer in white.

Kiefer comes on stage with tremendous impact, white hat, white jacket, roar of acclaim. He played electric guitar on the first number and went for it- rocking out. According to set lists online this was Rebel Wind, which is not on the Reckless & Me album, so unfamiliar to me. I had two previous set lists with me (shorter and longer). Normally, I scribble a snatch of lyric and look it up later. All I managed to scribble was “honest man” because the vocal was loud, and echoing heavily all over the place and the backing was louder. Sounded great in a way, but the voice became an instrument, not a vocal. So what can the sound crew do? If you turn up the vocal, it’ll echo even more. So the solution is to reduce it in volume, but then it’ll be swamped by the backing, so that has to go down even more. It might have worked, but the band and Kiefer are riding the visceral thrill and you’re going to lose impact greatly by turning down … the answer is to reduce and adjust between songs, and they might well have done, though in the hall size, the bass and drums are going to stay loud. They were quite loud, but never overpoweringly loud (as Europe were in this hall) I hasten to add. Can’t Stay Away (also not on Reckless & Me) had an audible lyric. Just about.

The band

The third song was Something You Love which is where we first encountered him on video. Keifer’s switch from electric guitar to acoustic helped. It took off and I reckon it was the song most were familiar with. I noted as on the video how excellent his drummer is. She doesn’t go for complexity, but is hard and clear. On which, while he did a band namecheck at the end (hurried and totally inaudible) he does not list his band members anywhere online, in contrast to k.d. lang last week who posts pictures and full bios. They’re the same band as online videos too. They don’t get listed in the Reckless & Me CD booklet either. Credit where credit is due, Kiefer!

Somthing You Love: Look at the hall. This is what creates the sound issues.

Reckless & Me led into Shirley Jean, new to me and an outstanding song which he said he’d thought of as a tribute to Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson. It is. The keyboard player switched to mandolin. The charisma and effort Kiefer was putting in was winning the crowd. I was probably the only one muttering “sound should be better.”

Open Road benefitted from a quiet start before drums and bass came in, immediately allowing the vocal to cut through. Nice touch of harmonica from the guitarist.  I’ve said it many times, but one of the most exciting bands I’ve seen on stage was also just about the quietest: The Flying Burrito Brothers.

Faded Pair of Blue Jeans is one of my favourite songs from Reckless and Me. Lovely melody and lyric. Definitely one to check out if you don’t know his songs.

He announced a cover of Blame It On Your Heart by Patty Loveless (US country #1 in 1993), played louder and strong, but that also meant muzzier, messier sound. One of the worst numbers for sound quality.

Not Enough Whiskey was from the first album. Good rollicking song. I thought he was inclined to think of himself as Canadian? WHISKEY is the USA and Irish spelling. The Scottish and Canadian spelling is WHISKY.

For Truth In Your Eyes he got rid of the guitar and just sang, and that was followed by I’ll Do Anything, both from the first album.

Saskatchewan was easily my favourite song of the evening, just as it’s my favourite song on the Reckless & Me album. The stories he told before and afterwards only served to make it better. The keyboard player started it with a classic organ sound and later switched to accordion. Marvellous.

Probably Saskatchewan

ThisIs How It’s Done is a great stadium rocker and presented as such.

All She Wrote was memorable on first hearing (it’s from the first album again).

Probably Down In A Hole

The two songs to finish the first set were Tom Petty’s Honey Bee and Down In A Hole title track from the first album. For both Kiefer switched to electric guitar and he had a lot of fun with guitar hero stuff with the lead guitarist in both. Again, the sound was louder, and vocals suffered. It was exciting, they all went for it, the drummer superb, but objectively, as far as focussing on instruments, sound quality was rough. I don’t think it mattered as the sheer vibrancy and attack on stage made it work.

Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door

The encores were Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door – which ranked with Saskatchewan as the best song of the evening, and his hymn to tequila, Agave. The anecdote for Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door was brilliant. We got mandolin, singalong and arm waving and maybe the best sound of the evening. Agave is a natural, great ender.

I wanted to get his 2016 album Down In A Hole (most of which was played tonight) but the concessions stand didn’t have it.

I’d love to see him in a hall with a decent acoustic. Superb performer, singer and writer. Tight very good band. Shame about the O2’s sound. Seated would be a bonus, but I reckon he got a lot of feedback from the excited and responsive standing audience.