BILL CALLAHAN

St George’s Hall, Bristol | 6 February

Dwarfed by the mural depicting Jesus and his Disciples in the St George’s Hall, Bill Callahan walks onto the stage, bolo tie gleaming from the spotlights like a clerical collar, and delivers a two-hour, chocolate-toned sermon that leaves his devout followers open-mouthed and red-palmed.

When announced, the anticipation of pairing Callahan’s voice with the renowned acoustics of St George’s spontaneously gave the 30-year-old males of the South-West erections. With memories of BC’s stunning 2011 show at the Trinity Centre still fresh, it’s something they thought would never be beaten (the anticipation, not the erection). The expectancy was rewarded the moment Callahan crooned the opening lines to set opener The Sing. Warm, delicate, smooth; his baritone voice universally made shoulders drop and edges of mouths rise. It was what we’d been waiting for.

Before the applaud goes any further, it should be noted that there were a few faux-pas along the way. Bill Callahan and his band played for two hours. In that two hours, 14 songs were played. And yes, that means a few of those songs went on for fucking ages. At points it was entirely welcome, in particular the psych rock-out featuring a droning harmonica during 2011 single America! but, in the most part, the meandering elongation fell on the side of self-indulgence. It hit rock bottom when each band member was introduced and performed pub-gig worthy solos throughout a cover of Percy Mayfield’s Please Send Me Someone to Love. Also worthy of a brief moan were a slightly shoddy rendition of Apocalypse opener Drover, and the exclusion of last year’s excellent Small Plane when every other track from Dream River was given a run-out.

But thankfully, these questionable moments were overshadowed by others of pure magic. The usually introverted Callahan appeared to emerge from his shell tonight, sharing jokes about the dire weather, and shuffling side to side in a trance-like state whilst his band encapsulated all with their blisteringly tight musicianship. Every string or hand drum was replicated or perfectly substituted, but it was the stripped down songs from Bill’s back catalogue that really shone. One Fine Morning, Jim Cain, and Riding For The Feeling were staggering, and Dongs of Sevotion cut Dress Sexy at My Funeral earned whoops from a delighted audience the second it was aired.

The set concluded in an odd manner, with Callahan ad-libbing loosely over Winter Road, singing/muttering about how much he loved the audience and something about George and the dragon. It was strange, but it was Bill Callahan. He could’ve dropped trou and shat on the microphone and it still would have been fucking brilliant.

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dragcity.com/artists/bill-callahan

Words: Andy S