Tricky live @ The Electric Ballroom in Camden
Tricky Live photos by Oscar Tornincasa http://photoblog.oskaro.it for rebelrebelmusic.com
Score: 7/10
When you decide to go and see Tricky live you never know what to expect, like whether he’s going to show himself on stage or not, but if he does, you know you are going to be propelled into a musical trip like few.
After a 45-minute opening show by London rapper BlueDaisy and a brief warm up by Tricky’s half Irish half Italian singer Francesca Belmonte, the Bristol musician walked on stage surprisingly on time. As if willing to keep up with the typical depth of his dark sounds, for the whole show – and photographers’ frustration – the stage was kept into darkness with only few blue and purple spotlights.
Tricky’s 2-hour show – as his music – alternated moments of energetic engagement to gloomy pauses – sometimes giving him the time to smoke something that smelt pretty much like weed. Accompanied on stage by a lot of beer, guitar, drums, bass, a DJ and backed up by Belmonte – who delivered a flawless performance and literally kept the stage by herself whenever Tricky seemed not to handle it – the British singer presented a show that allowed the public to feel free and lose control over the world around them.
The set list presented quite a number of tracks taken from his latest highly recommended album False Idols, the irresistible guitars of Parenthesis and the piano melodies of Nothing Matters driving the audience literally crazy.
Tricky’s proved to be a great musician, whose music has the ability to alter the listener’s perception of reality like a powerful drug, and so do his live shows. It’s safe to state that his ability to engage the public is incomparable as he invited over 30 people from the public to join him on stage, twice. Not only he let them join him on stage, they became a part of the show, pogoing, jumping all the way through the songs, singing with him, taking off their shirts, screaming, laughing and shooting selfies with their idol on stage to never forget such a hectic moment. And that’s exactly how the show ended. When everything seemed come to an end after the third break with a part of the audience already collecting their coats from the cloakroom, there he was, calling his fans again on stage for a 20 minute finale of more jumping madness.
After all, they say real genius comes with madness and it’s no doubt that both words perfectly go under the name of Tricky.
Highly recommended show for anyone who loves a good trip and great music.
