Watching Patrick Wolf wow the crowd at the Music Gallery on Tuesday night, I re-confirmed something I already knew.
Patrick Wolf is an extremely talented musician.
In town to celebrate his tenth year of making music, Wolf played what the promoters labelled as an “acoustic” show that spanned his entire discography. Make no mistake however, this was not your usual “coffee house I just got back from South America and now I’m a worldly musician with many tales and an indigenous poncho” type of acoustic show. This was a Patrick Wolf acoustic show and if you are a fan of his music, you will know that this would be a multi-faceted affair. Easily switching between all sorts of instruments ranging from grand piano, harp, saw and all sort of midget sized guitars, Wolf (with the help of two musicians) played the type of “acoustic” show that was only befitting of someone who creates the richly layered music that Wolf does. If anything, having an acoustic show highlights Patrick Wolf’s amazing vocal work, which would probably easily win any American Idol/X-Factor/The Voice shows.
Accompanying this tour is Sundark and Riverlight, a re-imagining of many tracks from his back catalog. This record served as the primary material for the show. For me, it was quite interesting to hear classic tracks such as Hard Times, and Vulture in a different light. There’s that weird moment where you are like “is this… why yes it is!” I guess it’s some sort of rediscovery process, you know the type – like when you switch up the flavor of mustard in your burger or something.
This was a completely different experience then the last time I saw Wolf, which was an absurd and chaotic party. This show was more subdued (the crowd was mostly silent, but could not resist the clapping part to The Magic Position) affair but yet, I came out completely satisfied. Hopefully it won’t take three years to see Wolf again, as I would love to see a show featuring his Lupercalia/Brumalia releases from last year.