Concert Review
Artist: Echo & The Bunnymen
Date: 1 June 2024
Venue: Union Events Center
City: Salt Lake City, UT
What bands were instrumental in your “Coming of age”? I can watch a movie like “The Perks of Being A Wallflower” and I can hone in on specific moments that I shared with my friends, in similar experiences when I was young, figuring out what the universe was about. I even drove in the back of an old Ford Pickup blasting David Bowie’s “Heroes”, or jumped off the ledge at Faultline Park in Salt Lake City Utah, at 2 am after having been the MC at the Rocky Horror Picture Show at the local art house movie theater. So many of those moments are like ones that I am sure every one of you has experienced.
So, the first concert that I ever saw was a life-changing moment. It was September 9, 1987, in order of Gene Loves Jezebel, Echo & The Bunnymen, and New Order. With two of my fave bands on the bill that night, (I always liked The Bunnymen just a hair more than New Order) at 13 years old, I had no idea how much this night was going to mean to me. They played “The Killing Moon” under a full moon, at an outdoor venue, the stars, and moon aligned that night, to change my life.
It was the first time I had ever heard the music played by the band that I loved, and it wasn’t through stereo speakers, from a cassette tape, or a vinyl record, THIS WAS THE REAL EXPERIENCE. From the moment Mac walked on stage and said “Hello Utah”, I was sharing space with a musician that was becoming so important to me. By the time I was screaming at the top of my lungs, out of key with 7 thousand other people, just as out of key “Lips Like Sugar!!!! SUGAR KISSES!!!” along with the guys playing it, I felt some sort of supercharged “Space cadet glow”. I was hooked on live music, and the music of Los Bunnymenos was instrumental in my coming of age, and steering what I did in my life. These guys made me understand my feelings, and these guys had the answers.
Since then I have followed Mac and Will and crew across continents on various tours. Backstage in Paris in 1998 I ended up being given the name “Huston Jones” and that was my name at will call for the rest of the European tour for tickets and backstage passes. I got a laminate on the 2001 tour and spent the rest of that year going to shows and helping record for a DVD that was in the works.
I have seen and shot so many gigs over the years, one of the most memorable was the “Crocodile/Heaven Up Here” show in 2011, with everyone in camouflage, and the stage decked out with it too. That was so cool to relive that with them.
So, if a band that means so much to YOU comes through town, of course, you are going to be as thrilled as you were in 1987 when their live performance got you hooked. The Bunnymen are on the “40 Years of Songs To Learn and Sing” tour, quite the history for a collection of singles meant to sample a greater catalog of 4 albums, that really can’t be placed as one better than the other, they just “ARE”…
I arrived at the venue, and there was nothing for me in the box office, which was going to be a problem, and a random guy handed me an extra ticket, and the security guys all knew me at this venue, so I got in with all my gear. I simply walked over to the sound booth asked for the tour manager, and showed the lighting guy my confirmation Email. He took me backstage to meet with the tour manager, and he was surprised that the venue had not looked at the band’s list, only the promoter’s list. He apologized and cleared me to shoot the gig. So, to the tour manager, the short bloke in the New York Dolls t-shirt sorted it out on the spot. (Not gonna mention any names, but thanks for sorting it out on the spot for me, it all was fine after that).
The lighting guy told me that they were going old school, and no direct lights would be on Mac, and this was going to be like the “Shine So Hard” gigs, (minus the camouflage).
As the 7 guys populated the stage, and the Gregorian chant intro, I was surprised to see the cellist join the band, now this is where you know it’s going to be amazing, for anything of “Ocean Rain” or “Evergreen”.
“Hello Salt Lake City, It’s good to be back,” said Mac, and we were off to the races with “Going Up”, one of those songs that are perfect to start a show, but it’s over almost as fast as it started, just gets you going. Before we were even halfway through applauding that opening song, we heard the bass thumping and drums and “Where hell have you been, we’ve been waiting with our best suits on, hair slicked back and all that jazz”. They were hitting us with the early gems already, and the punters were thrilled to be hearing them live.
Switching over to “Flowers” from some of the early 2000s right after the first singles, they were picking songs from the decades, with plenty to choose from.
They played Rescue with a newer sound to it, with a bit more distortion than you have heard on other tours, then “All My Colours” (Or ZIMBO). During “Villiers Terrace” true to form, they seemed like they were going into improv while Mac on the same metre started singing his own version of “Roadhouse Blues” by The Doors, and then the band kind of just flowed into it with him, they ended it with Bowie’s “Jean Genie”, being one of those songs that have the space in it to morph into a tribute of whoever Mac wants to sing that night.
I knew we were going to get all the songs off “Songs to Learn and Sing” but in what order? Well, the cellist started strumming fast and hard, the most impossible-to-miss opening “String Arrangement” of “Never Stop” as if he was a madman trying to kill something, it was AWESOME to see this. A single that became a staple for so long, the chorus “Measure by measure!!! Drop by Drop, And Pound for Pound we’re taking stock”, it was the entire venue participating in a singalong to a fantastic song of dissenting atheistic views, using 16th century English metaphors.
They finished this first part of the set off with “Bring on The Dancing Horses”, from the soundtrack of the film “Pretty in Pink”. The cellist was giving us such low tones, the kind you just feel lower than a bass guitar, you can close your eyes and sway to these notes. The guitar lines were all familiar and with the sound of a harp (Will has a trick on his guitar, you should see him do it, it’s a beauty) the whole song was a symphony, and Mac’s vocals were as smooth and haunting as ever for this one. We all grew up knowing this song, maybe more than others, and it made all the difference in the world on this tour.
The band finished and Mac said, “That was the first set, we’ll be back in a few minutes”. That was fine, we all needed an intermission after that first set of total bangers.
After 20 minutes and the merch table getting sacked, the band took the stage again with “Show of Strength” the opening track from the sophomore album “Heaven Up Here”. On a night like this, with such a vast catalog, these guys can pull album cuts, that never were singles or even got radio play, and they still are just wonderful to listen to, this was followed by “Over The Wall”, sounding as intense as it did on “Shine So Hard”, though it wasn’t on this “Singles collection” it belonged perfectly in this set.
From the middle of the 80s, as Mac puts it “The greatest album ever” they gave us “Seven Seas”, and the crowd singing the chorus had as much volume to it as Mac over the PA system, and he wasn’t complaining about being outdone. Moving forward 14 years to 1997 they played “Nothing Lasts Forever” from the “Evergreen” album, where Mac decided to let us all know how much he loves Lou Reed and did a meddle of “Walk on The Wild Side,” “A hustle here and a hustle there, Salt Lake City is the place where”, then “Don’t let me down” and Coney Island Baby”. I have said that Lou Reed is the God of Rock & Roll, and so many of the bands we love point back to Lou and the Velvets. Mac on stage is like that, somehow he is channeling Uncle Lou, and Jim Morrison on stage, sometimes even David Bowie. For a frontman, he is enigmatic and mysterious, and he just gives you some of the best music you will ever hear in your life. These are the moments why we go to live shows.
Pulling more album cuts, a song that was never a single but always a favorite “Heads Will Roll”, which was the kind of song that showcases the versatility of Will Sargeant’s guitar, and Mac’s voice. Mac can be smooth, intense, dark, and brooding, and then burst into powerful heights in a chorus. This kind of song shows how Will single-handedly pulled the psychedelic guitar riffs from The Velvet Underground and incorporated it all into New Wave, all while supporting one of the most powerful voices in music.
By the time we get to “The Killing Moon” that brought everyone to silence while Will played the opening notes, then Mac came in singing one of the finest songs he’s ever written. Songs like this are what give Mac the kind of title of a “songwriter equal to Shakespeare”, very few songwriters could ever write lyrics so haunting, and beautiful, and then sing them the way he does. If you have not heard this one performed live, you will be moved once you get the chance.
With “The Cutter” then the crowd sang their favorite “Lips Like Sugar”, (which has recently become a fave of David Hasselhoff, I am not kidding, just look it up), they took the stage one last time, as Adam the cellist began the somber minor notes, opening up the sailor’s ballad “Ocean Rain”. Countless umbrellas opened for this song, and everyone was entranced by the music that sinks your soul as if you would drown in the sadness of this song. As Mac sings it, you can feel yourself on the soaking wet wooden framed wind-driven ship, as the warm rain pours down, and you rock along on the waves, letting the mood take you where the sea wants. That is what you felt as Echo & The Bunnymen played the final notes to, “Screaming from beneath the waves”.
We all finished the show, as a combined effort, led by Liverpool’s finest, everyone had this wonderful buzz that you can only get from an emotionally charged show, and no one was disappointed with what the Bunnymen delivered.
After the show, I ended up with several members of the band at a bar just around the corner. Will and I talked about past tours, mutual friends, and back to our original conversation that started in Paris in 1998, “I want to see those gold plates, that is such a fantastic story”. But that is another story, within a story, within another story.
Echo & The Bunnymen is one of the greatest live bands to grace the stage in the last 40-plus years. If you have seen any of their shows you will know how historically significant they are. If you have not seen them yet, (and I met several people that night who hadn’t who were as old as I am) you still have some dates to catch them on.
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Excellent re-cap – thank you. I was able to re-live the concert through your writing, which was my 2nd time seeing the Bunnymen after 40 years. I was fortunate to attend the September 5, 1984 gig at Kingsbury Hall, University of Utah when I was 20-years-old. That concert left a deep impression! By many accounts is was an amazing show.
Great article – btw (Never Stop) the words are …taking stock !
Thanks mayn, one that Grammarly autocorrected then…