Reviewed ¬“¬ Jonny Marr @Junction - Marrch On
For a second, I noticed the intense strobe lighting doing more to singe the retina of the aging audience rather than insight the riotous behaviour of old. Either way, as he played his first homage to the Smiths of the evening ‘Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before’, there was a consensus that no one would be stopping him from treating us with this hit, although a couple of panting, one-time rockers could have perhaps used a second to catch their breath.
It was this mature crowd that was so befittingly paralleled by second single, ‘Upstarts’. In a sense, Johnny’s ulterior purpose for the tour was to instil a sense of youth and energy back to into the listeners. He wrapped them in a cocoon of distortion and reverb to send them back to nostalgic memories of larger stages and later nights. As you’d expect, that didn’t always fit into the intimacy of the Junction as a venue, but there would be no holding back for a big icon with an even bigger sound.
The band continued to play through the other songs from ‘The Messenger’, and they were occasionally interspersed with confused muffles from Johnny about high-rise flats and other anecdotes about 1980s Manchester. When hecklers replied to him, he managed to handle them like a seasoned pro; Smiths’ requests were met with lines like ‘not heard that one,’ to make people look yelping nobs.
Towards the latter half of the show there was a strong atmosphere of a group consciousness amongst forty-something blokes who spilt their beer and detritus onto an already sticky floor. The refreshing lack of smart phones being obnoxiously waved in the air was an upside to this, making me thankful that there are people that can appreciate a gig without having to place a screen between them and the experience.
It was at this point that the liveliness of the gig began to plateau slightly, and Johnny adopted a strumming technique rather than his eminent and iconic picking style. This deceleration allowed them to open up bridges and breakdowns into longer sections where Marr’s fingers explored more satisfying tones and everyone was awash with mystic jangling. These segments in between his singles allowed the set to breathe a little, although sometimes for too long when spectators were waiting restlessly for the next recognisable song.
Many of the faithful would have waiting over two decades for this experience, and he did spoil them with a couple Smiths’ classics, like ‘Bigmouth Strikes Again’, which was introduced as a Mancunian folk song. But what was most bewildering was his encore performance of the Clash’s, ‘I Fought The Law’. The rowdy middle-aged soldiers gave it there all to find their inner punk, but only really fought to remain balanced and keep the sweat out of their faces.
To finish the gig, ‘How Soon Is Now?’, well about 10:20, Johnny, but too early to finish! He’d given the crowd exactly what we wanted, plenty of Marr and a couple classics, and proved that despite his diminutive frame he’s still got a huge presence. It may have been bereft of any imagination or audience-involvement, and essentially a live cut of the album, but I’m sure it appeased his devotees.
Overall the gig was enjoyable, I now hope that he can begin work on producing one of those allusive experimental records that all great guitarists do at some point in their career.
Presented by: Max Tomlinson.
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