A rare visit to the capital allowed THEO BLEAK to showcase in full their recent release ‘Bargaining‘ in what proved to be a special evening.
Ask any music expert the worst time to release a non-festive set of songs, and the answer would undoubtedly be the week before Christmas. And yet that is exactly what Theo Bleak chose to do with their mixtape ‘Bargaining’. For a band that is resolutely forging their path, it was a very Bleakian-act. But for those lucky enough to have lost themselves in the fourteen songs, some mere fragments less than a minute long, an absolute gem was waiting to be discovered. Documenting singer/songwriter Katie Lynch’s navigation through grief, loss, and a search for connection, the songs at time feel akin to having a peek into someone’s private diary, a vibe strengthened by some being first time solo recordings that abruptly end as the stream of conscious thought escape. It would be fair to ask how this translates to an enjoyable live experience, but that is in the hands of Theo Bleak to resolve.
First on the small stage at the Old Blue Last is Quiet Man (or Quite Man as the set times on the door mistakenly state). As with the headliners, he has headed down from Glasgow but is back on home turf and as such s met by a packed room. It speaks volumes that for most of the set a pin could be heard to drop as he skillfully presents his set, his soulful voice supported by sparse piano notes on his keyboard.
It’s a hard act for fellow support Wiffeney whose blend of retail soul-funk is slickly delivered by the four-piece. It’s all very nice but doesn’t seem to quite know it’s destination. For a few down the front it hits the spot so all power to them.
And so to the headliners, Theo Bleak. Fitting six musicians on stage is a squeeze, but from the opening notes of End of the Bargaining it’s clear that Lynch’s voice and delivery retains the vulnerability and emotion of the recorded counterpart as she berates lost love. The subtle layers of instrumentation from the band (long time collaborators Mark Johnson and Megan McNally on acoustic and electric guitars respectively, Stephen Jack on bass, Kieran Smith on drums, and Charlie aka Quiet Man doing a double shift on keys and backing vocals) often a mere breath or shimmer around the vocal. Main single Megan in New York, the closest thing to a full throttled band song on the mixtape, builds steadily to allow McNally’s nimble lead to take flight, the brief “(17)” leading straight into “Finest Work” which revisits another lost relationship. It’s a continuous thread that drifts through set, songs offering bursts of memories and clarity before being lost as the thought eludes. With the songs following recorded order, there are no surprises aside occasional hesitancy. “We have rehearsed and tried to be professional!” apologises Lynch, who is centre stage throughout, often eyes closed and head tilted as her vocal drifts through the room. Even with additional in between song chat, the fourteen songs are soon completed. Maybe because of the confines of the stage, the band wisely dispense with the performative encore exit and go straight for the “greatest hits”, a four song encore that welcomely includes two cuts from last year’s excellent Bad Luck is Two Yellow Flowers EP in Said Like A Poet and Peach Sky.
To close, Lynch picks up the acoustic and delivers a solo rendition of a new song, Kilmeny, based around verses from the poem of the same name by the Scottish poet James Hogg. It is the perfect end to what has been an emotional but rewarding set, one well worth the sacrifices financial and otherwise made for the band to perform (at least one of the band members is back in Glasgow at work by 10am the next morning) .
As a set of songs, Bargaining is body of work of which Theo Bleak should be justly proud. Whether any of them make the setlist when they support fellow Scots The Twilight Sad at Barrowlands in May is an interesting question, but either way you’d be a fool to miss catching them.
Theo Bleak: https://theobleak.bandcamp.com/
Words and pictures: Geoff Shaw @gsmusicphotos