Meursault @ The Hug & Pint, 3 Feb
As Faith Eliott regales us with tales of fossils, insects and existential crises, the basement of The Hug & Pint rapidly fills up. The interim between sets is marked by jostling, manoeuvring, trying to keep pints upright and maintaining eyeline with the small stage, glowing like a beacon, bathed in cold blue light.
As Neil Pennycook and co. take the stage, the energy in the room is palpable. After a couple of years of hiatus, Meursault are back and a frenzied hush (if such a thing is possible) fills the room. Pennycook eyes up the crowd, tunes for a second, then breaks the tension with his aching warble of a voice. This charisma and confidence set the tone for the evening and help to usher in the rejuvenated second life of Meursault.
One thing remains unchanged, though: Pennycook's unwavering commitment to his art, and his unwillingness to pander to audiences. “If you came for the hits, sorry”, he quips early on. We are treated to a couple of choice cuts from 2012's Something for the Weakened, but the set is largely drawn from the recent Simple is Good EP and forthcoming album, I Will Kill Again. Pennycook performed some of these songs under his Supermoon alias, but these bombastic renditions are much more powerful and fully realised.
From the rockin' By Gaslight and the vaudevillian Oh, Sarah, through to main set closer I Will Kill Again, the band are tight and focused, while Pennycook howls and gesticulates, climbs and crumbles around the venue. He inhabits each song, manipulating the music and bending it to his will, falling just short of improvisation, but demonstrating a control that is testament to the long gestation period of most of these songs.
The band eschew amplified instrumentation for the encore, Ode to Gremlin, opting instead to add a fresh twist to “another song about the fucking sea”. Eliott and Pennycook belt out the twin harmonies, before Pennycook delivers the closing refrain in a gentle almost-whisper, and the song (and the performance) fade away. This is a vital, new incarnation of Meursault, and they are going to turn more than a few heads this year.
Part of Celtic Connections festival 2017