The War On Drugs ‘Come To The City’ – Brighton gig report

THE WAR ON DRUGS + BETH ORTON – BRIGHTON CENTRE 17.6.23

The War On Drugs 
Saturday night saw Philadelphia indie rock band The War On Drugs play a sold-out Brighton Centre as part of their tour across 10 countries which includes dates here in Glastonbury and The Eden Project. The tour follows the release of the band’s fifth studio album ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’ in 2021. Frontman Adam Granduciel formed The War On Drugs with Kurt Vile back in 2005, after they’d both recently moved to Philadelphia. Kurt Vile then left to pursue solo project after the release of the band’s first album ‘Wagonwheel Blues’ in 2008.

The War On Drugs have steadily emerged as one of this century’s great rock and roll bands to cross genres, removing the gaps between the underground and the mainstream and between the obtuse songs and the belting anthems. Their album, ‘A Deeper Understanding’ won the 2018 Grammy for ‘Best Rock Album’, and following that album The New Yorker called The War On Drugs ‘the best American “rock” band of [that] decade’.

Back to the present day, The War On Drugs came onto the Brighton Centre stage at 9:15pm to a huge cheer from the large audience. It was a very full stage even before the band arrived. As well as the usual drum kit, there were five keyboards. Even with that number of keyboards, it wasn’t an electronic synth sound, but a guitar rock lead sound. Added to that the band consisted of seven musicians. With Adam Granduciel (vocals, guitar) were David Hartley (bass guitar), Robbie Bennett (keyboards), Charlie Hall (drums), Jon Natchez (saxophone, keyboards), Anthony LaMarca (guitar, keyboards) and Eliza Hardy Jones (keyboards, percussion and backing vocals). (If you’re checking the sums, Robbie Bennet had two sets of keyboards set at right angles).

The War On Drugs started their set with ‘Pain’ from ‘A Deeper Understanding’ which had a power ballad feel to it. It was followed by ‘An Ocean In Between The Waves’ from ‘Lost In The Dream’. The intro sounded vaguely like ‘Take On Me’ by Norwegian pop band a-ha, but without the emphasis on the keyboards and there was a guitar solo later in the song.

Next up were three new songs from their latest album ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’. The first of these ‘Oceans Of Darkness’ was more of a rock song, with shades of Bryan Adams. ‘I Don’t Wanna Wait’ was dedicated to Beth Orton, who was supporting The War On Drugs on some shows on this tour. Adam Granduciel explained “We don’t wanna wait to see her perform again”. By contrast to the previous song ‘I Don’t Wanna Wait’ was a slower number. ‘Victim’ was another change in tempo and also musical style. Right from the start of this song, the keyboards were much more prominent.

While a member of the crew was fixing an issue with one of Robbie Bennett’s keyboards, Adam Granduciel dedicated the next song ‘Strangest Thing’ to the crew who made that night’s concert and the whole tour possible. The crew deserved their recognition. Among other things, their swift guitar changeovers between every song allowed the whole set to flow without unnecessary breaks or lengthy retuning of guitars. ‘Strangest Thing’ started with a moody saxophone intro by Jon Natchez. He played some very good saxophone parts on several songs in the set.

During instrumental breaks in the songs, the lead singer Adam Granduciel would walk around the stage to the various musicians, especially those with a solo part. He seemed to almost be cajoling, encouraging and praising them, making them feel an appreciated part of the band. Each member added to the music and sound of the band, on individual tracks and across the show as a whole. After the saxophone highlighted on ‘Strangest Thing’, it was Robbie Bennett and the keyboards turn to take centre stage on ‘Harmonia’s Dream’. This song had a very long introduction, to which the crowd happily clapped along. It was a few minutes before the guitars and drums joined in. For a section of this song, percussionist and keyboardist, Eliza Hardy Jones, took lead vocals. Her softer dreamy vocals provided a very good contrast to Adam Granduciel’s style.

Next up ‘Red Eyes’ was a more rocking number being louder and more up-tempo, and reminded me of Bruce Springsteen. It was definitely a favourite of the crowd. While ‘Old Skin’ from the latest album saw the tempo slow with Adam Granduciel singing to only Robbie Bennett’s keyboard as an accompaniment. For the next guitar change between songs, Adam Granduciel switched to an acoustic guitar for a Warren Zevon cover ‘Play It All Night Long’. Back to their own material, ‘Come To The City’ started with keyboards and saxophone and a different drumming style from Charlie Hall. On this track it was a very straightforward but effective thumping almost tribal drum sound.

Before the next song, Adam Granduciel told the story about how “someone had been bugging them on social media for a year to play a certain song, and this is that song”. It was ‘Eyes To The Wind’ from the 2014 album ‘Lost In The Dream’. Whoever the person was on social media, they must be a fan of the saxophone, as it features prominently on this particular song to good effect,

Judging by the big cheer after only a couple of bars of ‘Under The Pressure’, this song was another favourite of the crowd. It had long instrumental sections, which nobody seemed to mind. It reminded me of a cross between Bruce Springsteen and Bruce Hornby and The Range (if you can remember ‘The Way It Is’), which worked very well. The finale of the song had an end of set feel with its big musical climax. Much to the crowd’s delight, Adam Granduciel announced that they had ‘time for one more song’, which was a slower number ‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’. One more song turned into two more, as he asked “Want to squeeze one more song in?”. The answer was obvious from the crowd’s reaction to the question and throughout the show in general. They closed a quality, varied and very entertaining performance with ‘Occasional Rain’ dead on 11pm.

The War On Drugs:
Adam Granduciel – vocals, guitar
David Hartley – bass guitar
Robbie Bennett – keyboards
Charlie Hall – drums
Jon Natchez – saxophone, keyboards
Anthony LaMarca – guitar
Eliza Hardy Jones – keyboards, percussion, backing vocals

The War On Drugs setlist:
‘Pain’
‘An Ocean In Between The Waves’
‘Oceans Of Darkness’
‘I Don’t Wanna Wait’
‘Victim’
‘Strangest Thing’
‘Harmonia’s Dream’
‘Red Eyes’
‘Old Skin’
‘Play It All Night Long’ (Warren Zevon cover)
‘Come To The City’
‘Eyes To The Wind’
‘Under The Pressure’
‘I Don’t Live Here Anymore’
‘Occasional Rain’

www.thewarondrugs.net

Beth Orton

For the Brighton date of their tour The War On Drugs were supported by English musician Beth Orton whose music mixes elements of folk and electronica, and has been labelled as ‘folktronica’. She won a Brit Awards in 2000 for ‘Best British Female Solo Artist’, while her albums ‘Trailer Park’ (1997) and ‘Central Reservation’ (1999) were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize’s ‘Album of the Year’.

Beth Orton took to the stage with her band, which included a guitarist, bassist, drummer and a keyboard player, who also played saxophone. Beth started her set playing keyboards, while singing. The first song was a slow mellow number on which the drummer multi-tasked playing maracas and drums. The tempo of each song increased over the first three in the set. It was more noticeable that the drummer increased the speed of his playing compared to the other musicians, which felt like there was a slight disjoin between the drums and guitar.

For the next two songs, Beth got up from the keyboards to play some older songs from her back catalogue on her acoustic guitar. These songs had more of a folk sound, with the vocals more spoken word storytelling rather than singing. She asked if anyone remembered the 90s, before playing ‘Central Reservation’ from her 1999 album.

Unfortunately, later in Beth’s set, the muttering and chatting in the audience distracted from the sounds coming from the stage. This did somewhat spoil the experience of others.

For the penultimate song of the set, Beth again played guitar. As her band members left the stage, Beth announced she had “time for a short song”. She closed a pleasant set with arguably its best song, a solo on acoustic guitar of ‘Stolen Car’ from the ‘Central Reservation’ album.

bethortonofficial.com