Music / Reviews
Review: Declan McKenna, Bristol Beacon – ‘One of the most cherished indie greats’
Declan McKenna is always asking questions. His debut album wondered What Do You Think About The Car?, and now he’s back touring his latest: What Happened To The Beach?
Support act Wunderhorse are a hit – the four piece galloping through a short, gritty set. There’s grungy guitars and tasteful screams, their indie tendencies carefully veering off into hard rock.
The band are on the rise, and now they’ve got Declan McKenna fans on their side too.
is needed now More than ever
McKenna starts how he means to go on. He enters to classical music and birdsong before a robotic voice interrupts ‘Bristol! What the f*ck is up!’
His range is masterful – swerving from thumping glam rock tracks like Sympathy and Nothing Works to soaring ballads like Breath of Light and Elevator Hum.
Most of the gig he’s breathless, stopping only to gasp ‘Yes Bristol! Party Tuesday!’. That’s exactly what this gig is: a celebration of an artist at his peak, as theatrical as he is endearing.
At one point he’s quite literally at the summit – disappearing from behind his mic stand and reemerging atop his extravagant mountainous set.
The backdrop is an echo of Radiohead’s Kid A album cover, and here McKenna isn’t out of place among the greats. Projections transform the peaks from the walls of disco halls to underwater seascapes.
The show bubbles with creativity; an arty collage of glam rock, political pop and lo-fi indie.
McKenna’s stage presence is formidable – something he’s been working at for almost a decade. He’s all arms and legs, delightfully gangly and full of tricks as he bends over backwards, guitar still in hand.
It’s special when he sings Isombard in Kingdom Brunel’s stomping ground. This track is politically charged too, along with the likes of Brazil and Listen to Your Friends.
The crowd scream to the latter’s clever monologue, fuelled by passion and pain: Look online / Do ten minutes of research and in turn find / The problem is poor kids who want holidays in term time / The problem is poor kids who can’t afford the train fare / So we up the train fare and charge them for not paying the train fare / The problem is welfare / And the problem is free healthcare / ‘Cause it’s unfair and if it’s gone it’s welfare.
Everything McKenna does is calculated, but at the same time feels free and spontaneous. He closes with British Bombs, a fan favourite that he often leaves until the encore.
Though today it’s even more urgent, recalling the Elbit 7 trial in our own city; that the international defence contractor Elbit based at Aztec West has a parent company based in Israel.
We never found out the answer to what happened to the beach, but we don’t mind. McKenna is still standing firmly as one of the most cherished indie greats.
Main photo: Mia Smith
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