Rumours of Bono and Len himself turning up proved to be unfounded, but that didn’t stop this Dublin Theatre Festival shindig being the stuff legend is made of.
Fans certainly got plenty of bang for their Lennie buck, with the Hal Wilner-produced spectacular clocking in at over four hours (stop short-changing us Brooce!)
Amidst some seriously heavyweight competition, it was Antony Hegarty (‘You Know Who I Am’, ‘If It Be Your Will’) and Jarvis Cocker (‘Chelsea Hotel’, ‘I Can’t Forget’) who stole the honours with their stunning vocal performances.
Cocker, looking every bit as foppish as he did in his Pulp days, also injected some welcome humour into a night that tended to overdo the reverence.
Also getting an official “well done, chaps!” were Laurie Anderson for her treated vocal take on ‘Dear Heather’; The Handsome Family who gave ‘Famous Blue Raincoat’ a delicious Southern Gothic twist; and a newly clipper cut Gavin Friday who dedicated ‘Everyone Knows’ (‘Everyone knows that the boat is leaking/Everybody knows that the captain has lied’) to our glorious leader Bertie Ahern.
He also partnered Mary Margaret O’Hara on a deranged-but-in-a-good-way ‘Hallelujah’, which elicited rapturous applause from some and shock from others. Note to the hippy chick in front of me who booed – if Jeff Buckley is the only one who’s allowed to cover it, fuck off home and listen to Grace.
The ‘Trooper of the Night’ award went to a heavily pregnant Beth Orton who gave it serious socks on ‘So Long Marianne’ and ‘Sisters Of Mercy’.
Lou Reed (‘The Stranger Song’, ‘Joan Of Arc’) and Nick Cave (‘Avalanche’, ‘Dress Rehearsal Rag’) fans will be pleased to hear that their heroes didn’t disappoint either, and it was good seeing long-term Cohen accomplices Julie Christensen and Perla Batella take centre-stage for once.
Low points were few, far between and mainly attributable to Teddy Thompson who’s sadly inherited little of his parents’ talents. Needless to say, hippy chick adored him.
Teddy tedium aside, it was a night that gave the pilgrims exactly what they wanted.
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