There isn’t a Manchester raindrop in sight as the current heatwave continues to burn on into the evening. The rays of the setting sun are still enough to slowly cook part of tonight’s sell-out audience through The Dry’s huge front windows, and inside, the huge bar is heaving, more packed out than I’ve seen it since the mad Madchester days.
Anticipation is high, mixing in nicely with the slight and stifling tension and the sweat begins to drip slowly but surely from the walls. CAMERA OBSCURA are back in town, fresh off the wave of publicity surrounding their newly-released album, ‘Let’s get out of this Country’. This time there are bodies in support en masse, everywhere, standing on stuff to see better, creating a crowd it is near impossible to bob and weave through.
Though the stage area at the rear is tucked away from the blinding direct sunlight, the air is slowly mixing with the vapour from the sea of perspiring bodies packed in and around the mixing desk and stretching to the front of the stage. It’s as hot as hell in here, and as the band took to the stage - all jokes and smiles, towels and synthetic clothing – it was only going to get even hotter.
In actual fact, we were cooked slowly through this sultry and more ‘adult’ set of songs. They opened with ‘I Need All The Friends I Can Get’, and the sweat drenched showcase was suddenly underway along with a sea of clapping hands, as Tracyanne Campbell's vocal lounged, her eyes fretboard-fixed, through the expectation. This was low-key irony, but it still saw the band drip the first drops of a sea of excess fluid onstage. ‘I love my Jean’ stirred things up a little more, as the audience began to tune themselves in to the music, which sounds a little lost at first under the gaze of all those pairs of eyes and ears turned full on and ready to go.
Through the problems with a guitar sound they sailed, and ‘Dory Previn’ preceded the first immense sound of breaking glasses from a toppling table, the loose country ballad so appropriate that I checked for swinging saloon doors and signs of a gunfight as the cheering filled my ears. Current single ‘Hey Lloyd’ sounded sparse and beautiful, with the rhythm driving it along superbly. Lads punched the sky, as Tracyanne nodded in serious faced appreciation.
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“OK, it’s time for a bit of retarded Motown” she smiled, and the beating rhythm of ‘If Looks Could Kill’ filled our hearts and the sweat drenched air with its punishing and infectious pulse. When Nigel Baillie’s trumpet flooded the track, things were taken to another level and, finally, the audience began to move as a fire exit door opened to let a gorgeous rush of cold, fresh air come rushing in.
‘Country Mile’ was a welcome opportunity to relax once more as the music washed over us like we were pebbles on a beach. The cymbal crescendo was nothing short of stunning, and as I watched in awe, as ‘Tears from affairs’, perhaps the new album’s best track, held the crowd spellbound, showcasing Tracyanne’s beautiful, flat vowelled voice together with Carey’s forlorn wurlitzer keyboard sound. The tapping, probing rhythm section blended with the brassy Hawaiian-style guitar as this gorgeous song hit its peak.
Finishing with the final offering from the album, ‘Razzle Dazzle Rose’, the climax was as brass-orchestrated as anything you are likely to hear, testament to the effectiveness of that single trumpet. The applause could only blend with this powerful ending, and never threatened to drown it out despite the noise, banging, whistling and cheering. After the tense start and the gig’s slow building dynamic, this was a job well done, and another audience won over for the Glasgow 6-piece, who looked as half drowned in perspiration as their fans.
In the street outside, steam rises off bodies that have hardly moved a muscle. It all added to the sultry nature of the gig, and will serve as my reminder of the closeness of the atmosphere back inside.
http://www.myspace.com/cameraobscuraband
http://www.camera-obscura.net/
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