May 11, 2001

Tindersticks :Brussels Botanique : Brussels Botanique

Tindersticks play a four-night residency in Brussels...

It certainly all looks impressive. The imposing Botanique (yes, it lies within some exceedingly pretty Botanical Gardens) hosts an art exhibition, movies and four concerts by Nottingham's finest miserabilists. Oh, and tonight the band are going to be playing with a 17-piece orchestra. Opulent is the word that springs to mind.

But then Tindersticks have always plugged their grubby romanticism with, paradoxically (and we'll come back to that later) a certain dignity and style. However, tonight the soulful grooves of fine new LP 'Can Our Love...' are virtually ignored in favour of earlier offerings more suited to the stylish support the band receive (the band have selected certain songs for each night of their residency here to suit the tone of the evening).

Thus the extremely polite but highly-charged audience are treated to several tracks from 1995's 'Tindersticks' album (you know, the second one). Mini-epics such as the still-heartbreaking 'Tiny Tears' and the poignant and comically dark 'My Sister' get welcome airings, while Tarnation's Paula Fraser ably fills in for Walkabout Carla Torgerson on the country-tinged duet 'Travelling Light'. And 'City Sickness', the best song about loneliness in the big smoke ever, positively seethes with bad vibes.

Funnily enough, among the reverential bliss the band's back catalogue is clearly receiving from the central European hipsters, the one new song Tindersticks play showcases yet another beguiling paradox (told you) at the heart of this band. In the chorus of the funereal 'Dying Slowly' singer Stuart Staples charismatically mumbles that the affliction mentioned in the song's title would "seem better than shooting myself". The angst at the heart of the narrator's conflict is actually, in a sick, morbid kind of way, funny. And as 'My Sister' indicated earlier, this strand of humour is evident throughout the band's impressive body of work to date. You see, sometimes they're just having a laugh. But who else can take the piss in such style?

A beautiful setting, a beautiful band, a beautiful night.

Alan Woodhouse