Echo and the Bunnymen at The Roundhouse, London on 8.3.2024 with Erica Nockalls supporting
A Bunnymen hits tour at The Roundhouse – couldn’t ignore it. A big part of my student years and album after album of great songs…to sing and learn. My Bunnymen history is expanded in the blog of my last time seeing them, in 2022. (gigswithivan)
After a relatively slow start, for me, to the gig-going year, March is blossoming and tonight is gig 9. My updates will have to be briefer for this busy period – four gigs in four days coming up. I couldn’t help it!
Supporting tonight is Erica Nockalls – she has been playing with The Wonder Stuff for nearly 20 years now and I’ve also seen Miles Hunt (Wonder Stuff) and Erica as a duo. I really like their We Came Here to Work LP that I bought in Lockdown.
The ballyhoo for The Bunnymen didn’t make this the best opportunity to absorb something new and another time perhaps.
The Songs to Sing and Learn tour badge makes this a hits tour and the result is one of the best Echo and the Bunnymen sets I can remember. Indeed, I left thinking I couldn’t recall a better Bunnies gig, and this is gig 11 on a countback that started on 9 March 1981 at Hammersmith Odeon.
So often there is a bit of I wish they did this or that. Over the years there are several occasions when I’ve been in audiences that didn’t live up to McCulloch’s expectations. He is, still is, so rock’n’roll. We still can’t understand what he says between songs but tonight he’s trying.
It’s not all about him of course – well maybe – original guitarist and songwriter Will Sergeant is stage left front, but he keeps himself to himself.
There are two Bunnymen sets of roughly equal length – different, and it’s good to have a half time break that’s just enough to do battle with the Roundhouse toilet squeeze.
In part one some early belters: All That Jazz and Rescue for instance. The best for me was All My Colours (Zimbo) – one I used to play so much on a 12″ EP in my student years. Good to hear Flowers, title track of a lesser known and later album which I think is a goodie. Part one of the set ends with Bring on the Dancing Horses – a more poppy tune.
The sound is excellent – no ear defences put in tonight – and it’s amazing how McCulloch’s talking scouse mumbling can be transformed into such clear vocals.
Part two opens with Over the Wall, another early one from the combat gear years. Nothing Lasts Forever has become one of my life anthems and I loved hearing this – it was fused into Lou Reed’s Walk on the Wild Side to create something special for the evening.
They love a backlit, shadowy and smoky set. This usually makes for silhouettes in the gloom on photos but the lighting was a bit more revealing – it looks like I was right under Ian’s nose but that’s the zoom working and weird angle going on.
Killing Moon and The Cutter to end the main set – classics – Killing Moon being the song McCulloch says is the greatest song he’s ever written. I wouldn’t argue.
Two encores – I mean they actually went off and came back twice – of Lips Like Sugar and a calming Ocean Rain, ready for me to shoot off for the late train back to my mum’s and my old suburban stomping ground.
Gigs with Ivan 