Chapel Arts Centre, 8th June 2023
The intimacy he has with his crowd is a joy to see... Luke's devotees will hold this one in their hearts for a while.
“I’m a bit of a Luke groupie, I go to all his shows,” says someone at the bar as the packed house is
still arriving. Not the only one, it seems.
Luke expresses himself humbled by the numbers in the room. I am ignorant as to whether this is his
largest hometown crowd, it might be; anyway, it is the kind of audience that every solo performer
[I’ve been one myself] dreams of, and when it’s friends neighbours and family, that doesn’t devalue
it, it just makes it more special. With a Fringe hat on, I’m glad our publicity and opportunity helped
it to happen, even if we were only a little part of it.
Not that Luke is fazed by being onstage, at all. He inhabits it, he’s happy there, perhaps he can do
things there that he can’t anywhere else - it’s part of the licence his role conveys - and, friends and
family notwithstanding, the intimacy he has with his crowd is a joy to see; I hope it’s something he
can reproduce elsewhere, and I hope a room full of enthusiasts calling out “we love you” will be
welcoming to neophytes in future. No reason why not, and if he can pull it off that bodes well.
"there are lines one could get a little obsessed with"
I have to say I’ve not seen him perform for some time, nor at such length before. I now judge him to be at least a division up from those in or from the city and around whom I had considered his peers - I hear a lot of solo singer/songwriters, believe me. The most notable thing is that he edges into what could be called extended vocal techniques - amongst male singers the masters of this were Buckley Sr. [the daddio] and John Martyn around Inside Out, tho’ TBH Luke reminds me more of Anohni/Antony Hegarty - and his guitar technique knows when to do the obvious thing as well as when to go off-piste. The point of that is not admirable-but-empty vocal gymnastics, but to convey an emotion more deeply, and you’d have to be deaf not to hear that Luke is succeeding in doing that. Ella Clayton in support has a tendency to Joni-like intervals in her melodies, she caught fire most in a song that referenced the anger that caused her to write it. Her duet with Luke towards the end of the set was a highlight, perhaps because it provided an opening into something that was starting to seem a little closed-in on itself: but with the self-reference of a hometown set, that’s inevitable, and the positives outweigh that problem. There’s a pleasant interlude of very chordal [‘guitarist’s’?] piano on one number, and Luke plays entertainingly with tempo and endings, enjoying the audience’s attention. That’s fine, you need to know what to do with it if you can arouse it. I don’t get an awful lot from the lyrics on a first listen, though some of the audience know them better; I do get the feeling that there are lines one could get a little obsessed with.
"dealing in qualities of human performance that no recording (...) can get close to"
I namecheck the ‘70s masters because everyone should hear them, but, let’s be realistic, that was 50 years ago and now only attainable on recordings [and mine are scratchy]. The Fringe wants to encourage people out for the live experience, and Luke tonight was dealing in qualities of human performance that no recording and definitely no screenwash can get close to. This show, and the tour that it presages, may be a pinnacle in his career so far, but that doesn’t imply a peak, on tonight’s showing he has more to give. I would hazard that Luke devotees will hold this one in their hearts for a while, and, as an outsider perhaps, I’m glad I was there too.
★★★★
Luke De-Sciscio performed at Chapel Arts Centre on the 8th June with support from Ella Clayton, as part of Bath Fringe Festival.
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