ENGLISH POST-PUNK COMES TO STATE COLLEGE

[In The Margins]

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Influential 80s post-punk band Echo & The Bunnymen made a stop in State College on their current tour on Wednesday night (4/28) for an intimate show at the State Theatre.

I was advised by a friend on Wednesday morning that the show would be dark, moody and shadowy. Great description! After an intermission following the opening act that lasted the better part of an hour, Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant and the other members of Echo & The Bunnymen walked out on to the darkened, smoky State Theatre stage and started into “Going Up” from 1980’s Crocodiles album. For the next ninety minutes the band went through a setlist of favorites from the past like “Rescue,” “Bedbugs & Ballyhoo,” “Bring On The Dancing Horses,” “All That Jazz,” “The Killing Moon” and “The Cutter.”

Surprisingly, the only song the band played from their most recent album, 2009’s The Fountain, came about mid-way through the set when they performed “Think I Need It Too.”

What the crowd lacked in size, they made up for in spirit rising to their feet during many songs to dance – especially when the band launched into the non-album release from 1983 “Never Stop.”

Ian McCulloch stayed center stage behind his microphone for most of the night in the shadows revealing not much more than a silhouette to the State College crowd. Guitarist Will Sergeant stayed in the shadows stage left working his mastery of effects-laden electric guitar.

McCulloch joked with the crowd throughout the night even joking about his accent. His thick Liverpool accent was oftentimes hard to understand – a point that McCulloch himself acknowledged and then repeated himself slower in an American accent. Informing the crowd that there was merchandise available for sale in the lobby, McCulloch said, “Oh, we have CD things for sale in the thing.” He also gave praise to State College saying, “This is a nice little town you’ve got here.”

After finishing the set strongly with “The Killing Moon” (from 1984’s Ocean Rain) and closing with “The Cutter” (from 1983’s Porcupine), the band walked back into the shadows off stage only to return after a few minutes for the first encore performing 1997’s “Nothing Lasts Forever.” The song was featured on the Evergreen album which was the band’s first album after re-forming. During the song, McCulloch started singing Lou Reed’s “Walk On The Wild Side” changing the lyrics at one point singing, “A hustle here and a hustle there, State College is the place where they say, ‘Hey Babe,’ take a walk on the wild side.” Just when you thought they were about to start back into the actual song, McCulloch started singing Wilson Pickett’s “In The Midnight Hour” before eventually finishing “Nothing Lasts Forever.” “Do It Clean” from their debut album finished out the first encore.

The band left the stage again and returned for a second encore. Crowd members started shouting out “Lips Like Sugar!” to which McCulloch joked, “What else are we gonna do?” The band didn’t disappoint launching into “Lips Like Sugar” from their 1987 self-titled album. In the middle of the song, McCulloch rolled up the towel that he had been using throughout the show and asked “Who wants this towel?” He proceeded to launch the towel into the crowd and then started improvising some heavily-echoed nonsensical lyrics about the towel.

As McCulloch mentioned in his interview in last week’s Gazette that many of these songs sound more up-to-date when they play them live. I would have to agree. These songs, released almost 30 years ago, sounded fresh and inspired Wednesday night on the State Theatre stage.

Opening the show was San Francisco-based Kelley Stoltz. Stoltz has been compared to The Velvet Underground, Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen. He played an hour’s worth of original songs along with a couple cover songs. He informed the crowd that we were lucky to have a great record store in town that still sells vinyl and he had purchased about 9 records earlier that day before the show. One of the albums was a Link Wray record and they proceeded to perform a Link Wray instrumental “Ace of Spades” that they apparently figured out that day during sound check. Stoltz was added as the opening act when the original planned opening act couldn’t get here from England because of the Icelandic volcano eruptions. Stoltz admitted that he was a long-time fan of Echo & The Bunnymen and was “living his dream” being able to open up for them.

[Dr Evil]

Opening the show was San Francisco-based Kelley Stoltz. Stoltz has been compared to The Velvet Underground, Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen.

Impressive credentials. Sort of thing I'd use to describe a girl singer I know-though even if it's all true, he still wouldn't be as good as her. Perhaps he should lend Mac a hand on vocals from now on.