Lloyd Cole has returned to Australia for some shows ahead of a down under Christmas with friends. This week the show came to Melbourne with Adelaide, Brisbane and Fremantle still to go.
2024 will mark the 40th anniversary of the first album ‘Rattlesnakes’ (Lloyd Cole and the Commotions) which gave Lloyd a name in Australia when he was still in his early 20s. “I haven’t done Rattlesnakes yet,” he said three songs in for the late-comers.
This tour is Lloyd solo and acoustic. There is no band, just Lloyd and two guitars and dress in all white. With the excellent acoustics of Melbourne’s revered Melbourne Recital Centre the sound fills the room. However, if like me, you have only seen Lloyd with a band before, this show presents a parallel to the catalogue.
Lloyd has been around for a long-time and he has also been prolific in that long time so there is a lot to cover in a two-hour show. 31 songs have content for a storyteller with a lot of short stories. Only two of the 31 songs came from the most recent album ‘On Pain’ (2023). Some of the songs we know well, many come from albums overlooked in their day. It is interesting how an artist can have so much success with one album and be ignored with others down the track. Lloyd live evens the score with the ones we want to hear generously mixed with the ones we needed to hear.
I’ve seen the descriptive lyrics of Lloyd Cole compared to those of Jimmy Webb before so it was interesting to see Cole perform on the exact same stage as a solo act that Jimmy Webb performed on just last week, also solo, with no band.
Taking Lloyd’s songs away from the album and arranged into a setlist does place some of these stories out of context. ‘Butterfly’, for example, just sounds creepy now when presented as a standalone track away from the ‘Don’t Get Weird On Me Babe’ album. Most of the Commotions era songs where played including ‘Rattlesnakes’, ‘Forest Fire’ and ‘Perfect Skin’. The show also seems fairly consistent to various other shows on the tour with only a couple of changes. For example we got Bowie’s ‘Can You Hear Me’ but he has also been performing Bowie’s ‘Right‘ in its place at some shows. Both of those songs originally appeared on the same album, ‘Young Americans’ in 1975.
2019’s ‘Violins’ came at the end of the second set. Lloyd said its his mother’s favourite song. “It only took me 30 years to write one she liked,” he said.
The acoustic setting gave a simplistic spotlight to the songs. ‘Perfect Skin’ by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions was happening at exactly the same time ‘How Soon Is Now?’ was new music for The Smiths. There is another crossover. Morrissey, like Webb, also toured Australia just last week.
Lloyd Cole setlist, 13 December 2023, Melbourne Recital Centre
No Blue Skies (from Lloyd Cole, 1990)
Mr. Malcontent (Lloyd Cole and the Commotions song)
Trigger Happy (from Love Story, 1995)
On Pain (from On Pain, 2023)
Why in the World? (from Broken Record, 2010)
Can You Hear Me (David Bowie cover)
Rattlesnakes (from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Rattlesnakes, 1984)
Like Lovers Do (from Love Story, 1995)
Pay for It (from Don’t Get Weird On Me Babe, 1991)
My Other Life (from Music in a Foreign Language, 2003)
2cv (from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Rattlesnakes, 1984)
Undressed (from Lloyd Cole, 1990)
Tried to Rock (from Lloyd Cole and the Negatives, The Negatives, 2000)
The Afterlife (from Guesswork, 2019)
If I Were a Song (from Broken Record, 2010)
Are You Ready to Be Heartbroken? (from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Rattlesnakes, 1984)
Brand New Friend (from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Easy Pieces, 1985)
Cut Me Down (from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Easy Pieces, 1985)
The Idiot (from On Pain, 2023)
Why I Love Country Music (from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Easy Pieces, 1985)
Butterfly (from Don’t Get Weird On Me Babe, 1991)
Diminished Ex (from Standards, 2013)
Jennifer She Said (from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Mainstream, 1987)
Woman in a Bar (from Antidepressant, 2006)
My Alibi (from Music in a Foreign Language, 2003)
Myrtle and Rose (from Standards, 2013)
It’s Late (from Standards, 2013)
Perfect Skin (from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Rattlesnakes, 1984)
Violins (from Guesswork, 2019)
Encore:
The Young Idealists (from Antidepressant, 2006)
Forest Fire (from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions, Rattlesnakes, 1984)
Lloyd Cole remaining Australian shows
14 December, Adelaide, Hindley Street Music Hall
15 December, Brisbane, Fortitude Music Hall
17 December, Fremantle, Freo Social
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