19 October, 2004- Ding Dong Lounge, Melbourne, Australia

review by Peter

Lanegan review 19/10/04 Ding Dong Lounge Melbourne

After seeing Mark in Melbourne in February 2003 on a sweltering summer evening accompanied only by two acoustic guitars, I was looking forward to Mark bringing a full band on tour to experience his live songs under a different light.

Mark & Co took the stage at the Ding Dong Lounge at around 10:30pm in front of around 200-300 people and served up a smattering of songs from Bubblegum, Methamphetamine Blues EP, Field Songs, I'll Take Care of You and Whisky for the Holy Ghost. As expected, Mark's voice was at it's mesmerising best, weaving his way through his full vocal repertoire.

From a personal point of view I thought the stand out song of the night was "On Jesus' Program". Words cannot begin to describe Mark's vocal delivery on this song. If you get a chance to see Mark play, hearing this full band rendition of "On Jesus' Program" is worth the price of admission alone. His full throttled growl was spellbinding and was left ringing in my ears long after the night had ended. Other favourite's of mine on the night were renditions of No Easy Action, Message to Mine and Skeletal History.

The crowd was treated to two encores with the final song of the night being Creeping Coastline of Lights.

The band guitarists were relatively motionless and expressionless during the show, as was the female background vocalist, however they performed well as a unit and several songs had mutated psychedelic extended jams either at the end or middle of the song.

The set consisted of (from memory and not in order):
Message to Mine
Sleep With Me
Skeletal History
Pendulum
I'll Take Care of You
Creeping Coastline of Lights
On Jesus' Program
No Easy Action
Miracle
Fix
Resurrection song
Field Song
When Your Number Isn't Here
Hit The City
Wedding Dress
Little John Willie
Methamphetamine Blues
Sideways in Reverse
Come to Me
Driving Death Valley Blues

If anyone has a recording of either Melbourne gig, please let me know.
Thanks.

Peter