Lloyd Cole at Dakota Jazz Club, Minneapolis (18 Nov 2016)

 

Legendary English singer/songwriter Lloyd Cole made a rare Minneapolis appearance at the Dakota Jazz Club on Friday, November 18th. According to the internet, the last time Cole was in town, it was over a decade ago at the Fine Line Music Café on 16 July 2004.

Anyway, despite the first snowstorm of the year, people came out, and showed up early, thanks to Cole’s warning earlier that week: “Showtimes this weekend are early. Minneapolis is 7.35 (yes, that means me), and Chicago is 7.00. Be there on time or miss Rattlesnakes.”

Since there were no opening acts listed, Cole would play a double set on this Retrospective show. And as promised, Cole started a little after 7:30pm with two songs from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions’ album Rattlesnakes, including starting song ‘Patience’, a fitting song for those who sat waiting patiently at their table.

Although there were only three ‘Commotions albums (Rattlesnakes, 1984; Easy Pieces, 1985; Mainstream, 1987), Cole made sure those songs were fairly well represented on this tour. Some of these songs were rarely heard live, so it was a real treat for older fans to hear ‘Lonely Mile’, ‘My Bag’, or the first set closer ‘Jennifer She Said’.

 

Two tributes were made on this special show, Cole threw in a Prince cover ‘Sometimes it Snows in April’ (medley with ‘Loveless’), a rarely covered song (from Prince’s lesser-known film Under the Cherry Moon). When Prince passed away, we heard countless ‘Purple Rain’ cover songs… although the song is fine, true Prince fans would note that it is not his best song. The cover choice proved that Cole made the effort to learn the lyrics and chords and he gave a lot of thought in this cover song.

The other tribute was done in honor of the great, late Leonard Cohen. Choosing to avoid ‘Hallelujah’ (‘everybody knows’ that is his weakest song), Cole instead decided to cover ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ (which, incidentally, was not written on his setlist – see photo). The Cohen song was sung in a way that it was written in a form of a letter and told the story of a love triangle.

 

After an intermission soundtracked by nothing but Prince songs on the house system, Cole emerged for his second hour-long set with his “special guest”, his son William, who he would later describe as “a young man that looks like me… if I’d been in Echo and the Bunnymen…!”.

Opening the second hour with ‘Don’t Look Back’ was slightly ironic, as this whole Classic Songbook Tour was nothing else than a look back, but the song, stripped to its essence, still resonates with storytelling grace twenty-five years later.

The younger Cole did a fine job embellishing on guitar though would once or twice play a note late, with his wincing face of realization plain that he knew, but his father never acknowledged it, saying “we’re pretty slick” before both strummed the opening of ‘Perfect Skin’.

Before ‘2cv’, the elder Cole explained his “double denim” choice of outfit, as being influenced by a recent trip to Austin, and Cole brought up the fact that many couples in his audiences are unbalanced as to their love for his music (one person in the relationship being much more of a fan) …which he was all right with, before going into the appropriate ‘Brand New Friend’, melding the song into a verse of David Bowie’s ‘Sorrow’ at the end.

The two-song encore consisted of the bouncy ‘Lost Weekend’ from 1985’s Easy Pieces, and ‘Forest Fire’, a song as its lyrics go, is “a simple metaphor” for “a burning love” and “don’t it make you smile, like a forest fire”, which the two-hour show did, for these die-hard fans.

After his Chicago, the next night, Cole admitted that “Fabulous crowds most everywhere. Thanks to all who came along and made this my most successful acoustic tour to date. We start again on Jan 10th in Brisbane.”

Lloyd Cole continues his retrospective shows:

01/10 QPAC, Brisbane, Australia 01/11 City Hall, Lismore, NSW, Australia 01/13 Trinity Sessions, Adelaide, Australia 01/14 Hammer Hall, Melbourne, Australia 01/15 City Recital Hall, Sydney 01/19 Clarendon Guesthouse, Katoomba Australia 01/20 Arts Centre, Sutherland, NSW, Australia 01/21 Fly Bt Night, Fremantle, WA, Australia 01/28 Theatre Royal, Nelson, New Zealand 01/29 Paramount, Wellington, New Zealand 01/31 Sherwood, Queenstown, New Zealand 02/02 Coronation Hall, Dunedin, New Zealand 02/03 Piano, Christchurch 02/04 ASB Waterfront Theatre, Auckland 02/05 Vic, Auckland New Zealand 03/02 Stenhammarsalen, Gothenburg, Sweden 03/03 Konserthus, Small Hall, Oslo Norway

03/04 Kulturhus, Notteroy, Norway 03/06 Sodra Teatrern, Stockholm, Sweden 03/07 Palladium, Malmo, Sweden 03/08 Bremen, Copenhagen, Denmark 03/09 Atlas, Aarhus, Denmark 03/11 Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Germany 03/12 Electronic concert Bunker Feldstraße Germany 03/15 La Maroquinerie, Paris, France 03/17 Effenaar, Eindhoven, Netherlands 03/18 Zonnehuis, Amsterdam, Netherlands 03/20 St Paul’s, Worthing, UK 03/21 Phoenix, Exeter, UK 03/23 Assembly, Leamington Spa, UK 03/26 Aquarium, Lowestoft, UK 03/27 City Hall Ballroom, Sheffield, UK 03/29 Unity Works, Wakefield, UK 03/30 Atkinson, Southport, UK 03/31 Waterside, Sale, UK