Tricky in Istanbul was not great. Nor was he great in Athens, according to friends who saw him there two days later on the next stop of his European tour. And really, he is usually not that great live no matter where he plays. Some cynical souls would blame this on his bad habits and call it “being out of it”, but I would say that he just demands a certain kind of energy from the audience, and if the feeling is not there, well, neither is Tricky then.
Still, Tricky shows are usually the hot ticket in town because even an hour or less of his music makes the people a-little-more-awake. His fans are truly fans, believers in an intense and esoteric career going back to the Wild Bunch and Massive Attack days. They come for “Tricky Kid” and sing along – even with the incomprehensible and muted bits, destroying and recreating the world with each song and in all its beauty and despair. This is the sound and fury of murky trip-hop. This is Tricky.
When present and committed, his music takes over, but even without the perfect synergy, the power remains.
Tricky at garajistanbul last Thursday night was a disappointingly short and half-hearted yet still haunting show with die-hard fans and plenty of others. We came early – the show started an hour after scheduled time, as it usually does at this fancy Cihangir venue – and left early, feeling a bit cheated but nevertheless positively insane.
“My sins my own
They belong to me,
People say ‘Beware!’
But I don’t care,
The words are just
Rules and regulations to me, me.”
Most of the songs were from the newest 2013 False Idols record – a return to the original sound of his debut Maxinquaye that can best be described as a sort of ying-yang energy – something deep, masculine and dark, balancing and clashing with subtler melodies of feminine softness. Tricky was on stage with Francesca Belmonte, with whom he has been collaborating and co-writing music since 2008, but a couple of tracks also featured an underground British hip-hop artist No Lay, who specifically joined them for this tour.
Some sounds really made the crowd move, but mostly people were interested in hearing danceable trip-hop club tracks that made Massive Attack famous. Tricky, however, was having none of it. Having played just long enough the satisfy the producers and fulfill his commercial duties, he sent away the entire crew, grabbed the mike and while moving back and forth on stage menacingly moaned “I’m alone. I’m alone. I’m alone. I’m alone. I’m alone. I’m alone…”
The audience at this point, feeling slightly mad, stormed the stage and soon more than 30 to 40 people were surrounding Tricky and jumping up and down like hungry children. He became uncomfortable – truly alone, but kept up his laments for another few minutes, repeating those same three words over and over again. Then he just turned off the mike and left.
Ah, what a night?! Listening to these tracks now and forcing myself to put the experience in words, I feel like I’m going in circles and not having much to say. I was just there, and despite my best efforts to maintain a critical stance, I ended up getting lost with every second beat – in the rhythm, the bass, the vocals – the hope, and then the angst.
“Can’t seem to find my steps at all
I’m walking
Can’t find the words I need to say
Talking
I run around inside my head
Alright
I run around to sound and step
Alright.”
Can’t find the words I need to say…Talking…
Tricky the trickster!
awesome review from smilja as always 🙂