Published 2024-08-09 06.29
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exactly eight years after the last visit, PJ Harvey delivers another powerful Way Out West gig. Photo: Anders Deros
WAY OUT WEST PJ Harvey, as usual, does not take the easiest roads. But unique charisma, a still sensational voice and a hard-to-beat ability to create condensation build a set that captures the whole essence of her highly personal rock world.
PJ Harvey
Place: Azalea, Way Out West. Public: The biggest of the evening so far on the second biggest stage. Length: 74 minutes. Best: The second half of the set sizzles all the way. Worst: No. Don’t want to complain about anything here.
GOTHENBURG. Last time that PJ Harvey guested on Way Out West, for a phenomenal gig in 2016the rain fell heavily, which almost only added to the dark, politically charged moods of the album “The Hope Six demolition project” on which the show was based at the time.
Tonight we manage to avoid the wet but when darkness falls during the gig and it almost feels like part of the show.
The concert starts with the dull fairytale moods from last year’s album “I inside the old year dying”. Far from the 54-year-old’s most accessible, and it may not be quite the same explosive performance as last.
However, at least as gripping. And it says something about this artist’s ability that she manages to magnetize her audience with such small gestures as those in “The nether-age” or “A child’s question, August”.
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full screen It shines about PJ Harvey on Way Out West, not just in this picture. Photo: Anders Deros
The wide white cape Harvey initially drapes himself in is a work of art in itself, inspired – just like the new songs – by the forests of Dorset where he grew up.
Thanks to the condensation she manages to build up in the finer print numbers, the effect is all the greater when she and her quartet of seasoned British gentlemen – the constant guitarist and collaborator John Parish of course included – banging on with a “50ft queenie”.
As so often, Polly Jean says almost nothing, but the way she constructs the set succeeds very skillfully in boiling down the whole essence of her 32-year recording career.
She is the explorer of war and politics in “The words that maketh murder” and “Let England shake”, the story-telling ballad singer in “Angelene” and “The desperate kingdom of love”, the spiky indie punk icon in “Man-size” and “Dress ” and the thunderous blues singer in a thunderous “To bring you my love”.
All thanks to a rare feeling for melodies and arrangements and one of the most personal rock voices of recent decades. Not least, she and the band really feel like a dramatic unit. Just experience how they scratch, whisper and caress “The garden”.
And despite the fact that the career is getting long, everything tonight sounds like vital parts of something very multi-faceted, alive and ongoing.
It’s not that impressive.
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FACT
All the songs
1. Prayer at the gate 2. The nether-edge 3. I inside the old year dying 4. The glorious land 5. Let England shake 6. The words that maketh murder 7. A child’s question, August 8. I inside the old I dying 9. Send his love to me 10. 50ft queenie 11. Black hearted love 12. Angelene 13. The garden 14. The desperate kingdom of love 15. Man-size 16. Dress 17. Down by the water 18. To bring you my love
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