24 November, 2001, Half Moon, Cork, Ireland

review by Dave

This is how things went on the opening night of Mark Lanegan's European Tour. November 24, 2001. Bus journey from Dublin to Cork: a wretched four and a half hours in inhospitable November weather. Some of the countryside along the way is worth a glance though, pale winter sun from behind clouds dark with incipient rain, casting a dreary light on old stone and grass. Even if you wouldn't want to spend a night out in those moist woods or drenched fields. Stopped at the half-way point at a backwater town which I will not name, but I stood around in the cold and thought to myself: this better be fucking worth it.

This happened only nine days ago, but it seems like a much longer time. Already the events are kind of distant, misted over: as if they transpired years ago, or didn't happen at all and were dreamed. If that sounds a bit melodramatic it's not meant to: all that happened was a rock gig, obviously, but that's kind of how it feels. By the time I arrived in Cork it was dark and a shivering drizzle was falling. I went to the gig on my own. Seemed appropriate. The Half Moon Theatre wasn't full at all. Plenty of room to move about, no-one crushing at the front of the stage. Wandered over a few yards in front of the stage. That entire area was clear. Mike Johnson came out and played a few songs, including 'Remember' and 'Dirty Hands' I think. Apart from his work on the Lanegan albums, I'd heard Johnson with Dinosaur Jr., but wasn't familiar with his solo stuff. Good voice, but the songs were very slow. Johnson seemed to acknowledge this with a few quips about how 'this next one is really gonna liven the place up', or words to that effect.

When the band came out and started straight into 'Field Song' the place was nearly full, but there was a still a good yard and a half of space between the crowd and the stage. It was as if we were being very polite, but the Half Moon seems to be that kind of venue, attracting a very chilled out crowd who were still really into the music. 'Borracho' and 'Pendulum' followed 'Field Song', then I think it was 'No Easy Action' and 'Miracle' and then in no particular order here are the rest of the songs:

don't forget me/ river rise/ bell black ocean/ pill hill serenade/ because of this/ the winding sheet/ i'll take care of you/ on jesus' program/ hotel/ she done too much/ creeping coastline of lights/ gospel plow

I stood in the front line, knew the words to every song. Lanegan must have seen me mouthing along to them. I thought to myself, 'Jesus, I know all the songs, he's going to think I'm some kind of lunatic fan or something.' In any event, he hardly said two words, except 'Thanks' a couple of times, but crouched periodically at the microphone stand to light cigarettes or knock them into an ashtray. Towards the end somebody in the crowd asked him to introduce the band, which he did, the most he said all night. A couple of people in the crowd then said, 'Yeah, and who are you?', which predictably drew no reaction at all. Dose of Irish humour for ya there, Mark. The gig itself was great, maybe the best I've seen, but there is no way to describe it really other than to list the songs. It ended with a full-on version of 'Gospel Plow' but 'Pill Hill Serenade' was the one which stayed with me; I kind of associate it with a girl I spent some time with last September, and walking out on my own at 11 o'clock at night the drizzle was coming down. Cars rolled past on the drenched streets. 'Tail lights through silver rain'. Waited half an hour for a bus that didn't come. It didn't matter.