The best concert ever: as told by Mr Z
In
1994 or 1995, I crossed the Pennines from my home in Sheffield to
Manchester, to see Tricky supporting P J Harvey. Both had released
career-defining albums that year - Tricky's Maxinquaye, and Harvey's
To Bring You My Love. As my two favourite artists, I was thrilled to
discover them on the same bill.
Tricky
went on first. Maxinquaye is already a darker and more experimental
album than the Trip Hop he'd pioneered with Massive Attack, and on
stage he pushed further, creating a menacing, almost oppressive
atmosphere. Excellent, atmospheric, kinda scary stuff.
...
and then Polly came on and blew him out of the water. She was
mesmerising, performing the material as though demonically possessed,
and following every song with a soft, shy, child-like "thank
you". She played almost everything off the new album, and her
backing band easily did justice to songs as disparate as Meet Ze
Monsta and The Dancer.
The
highlight for me, though, was Yuri G. Rid of Me has always been my
favourite PJH album, and her performance of that track was brutal and
exhilarating. I can still hear it, more than twenty years later.
