Ian McCulloch left the stage to rapturous applause from a packed crowd in Zeilg's bar and restaurant yesterday evening.
A newcomer to city centre venues the Italian eatery at Liverpool One was the perfect setting for this cosy show.
Bar a brief hiatus McCulloch has fronted the post-punk band Echo and the Bunnymen for nigh-on 30 years. Fans may be used to large venues, festival gigs and atmospheric stage effects. But over the decades the Liverpudlian has also mastered more direct solo shows.
The three hundred-strong crowd, many of whom were intimately seated at what would normally be candlelit dining tables, were treated to a two-hour set covering songs from McCulloch's band, his own career and carefully selected tracks of his peers.
With a back catalogue to rival not just anyone in the city but any artist in the world the charismatic front-man sailed through songs from many years ago as if they were fresh from the recording studio. Whilst chewing-up hits from the likes of David Bowie and Leonard Cohen and gracefully spitting them out as if they were his own. Much to the delight of all present.
Songs that would sit comfortably in any band's greatest hits collection echoed around the spacious venue. The Killing Moon, Nothing Ever Lasts Forever and Lips Like Sugar bounced off the high ceilings. The more observant may question the building's strange interior. Part Roman eatery, part multi story car park it's difficult to work out where the decor intentionally stops and where the unfinished parts lie.
But most were just there to enjoy the music. Tunes from an underrated solo career like Candleland were effortlessly intertwined with universally recognised mega-hits like Bowie's Heros.
McCulloch is uniquely and tragi-commically incoherent. This doesn't however deter from the crowd's admiration. Whereas other artists' drunken mumblings and slurrings have damaged their careers to the point of ridicule Mac just adds to his mystique with each misplaced word. Of which there were many at Zeilg.
The appropriate finger pointing to chatty members of the audience, incomprehensible ramblings and mixed-up lyrics were all present, but the home town crowd still left smiling. And rightfully so. It's hard not to feel like you're attending an audience with a musical genius.
Often undervalued and under-used by those in his own city, McCulloch, and of course the Bunnymen as a whole have been lauded by global musical giants.
Coldplay cite them as an influence and Las Vegas rockers' The Killers have gone as far as recently worming the 1985 hit Bring on the Dancing Horses into their live set.
The acknowledgement from rock royalty continued last night with Arctic Monkeys' front man Alex Turner in the audience. Turner was accompanied with his bandmate from side project Last of the Shadow Puppets, Miles Kane. Kane, who also fronts Wirral band The Rascals, plied his trade in the encore. Hopping on the stage to join-in with a rendition of the Velvet Underground's Waiting For The Man.
The night was McCulloch's though. With much kudos to his tight band, who also happen to be the current incarnation of The Bunnymen, minus Will Sergaent, the main adulation at the end was devoted to him.
He returns to the same venue next month for a similar gig. No doubt many present last night will be back there with him,
9/10 "Eccellente!"
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