patrick wolf review

i wrote some words on patrick wolf's gig at the classic grand (29th may) which the skinny have just put online. here they are...


Cooler-than-cucumbers Yacht (**) might sound awesome at one a.m. in a sweaty Optimo, but as early-doors support they're exposed as no-substance nonsense. The duo gamely gurn and gyrate to their bass-y backing track, but often look lost in front of a largely disinterested crowd, who only really waken up to play with the liberally distributed balloons.

Patrick Wolf (***) has himself been accused of style over substance, but daubed in glitter and adorned with a head-set microphone for maximum posing opportunities, he wears his narcissism well. Of the new material, Battle is the crowd-pleaser, less for its repetitive war-cry chorus and more for Wolf's acrobatic forays into the crowd via railings and ledges, his proximity triggering ecstatic convulsions from at least one starry-eyed fan. Such devotion ensures that even appalling sound problems can't dampen spirits, but a niggling doubt remains. Beneath the cocksure looks and amiable banter, Wolf no longer seems as weighty a talent as was once promised, his showmanship not enough to distract from a dragging first half. But when The Magic Position's violin refrain kicks in at the close, the excellence of which he is capable reappears with conviction.