Mazzy Star at Shepherd's Bush Empire

 
Mazzy Star
Unison
Rick Tomlinson
Shepherd's Bush Empire, 3 June 2012

While others were out partying or returning home from the Diamond Jubilee celebrations, I set out in the rain to Shepherd's Bush to catch yet another reunited band from the 90s, the lovely and still hugely influential Mazzy Star.
In a way the dark, rainy weather was the perfect mood-setter for Hope Sandoval and David Roback's atmospheric dream pop: something I had been listening to since MTV used to regularly show the Fade Into You video and I'd sneak into my brother's bedroom to steal the CD it opened, So Tonight That I Might See. I don't know why I never attempted to see them live back then or even when they briefly toured back in 2000, but I may not have appreciated their minimalist stage style and hazy, reverb-drenched guitars at the time.  But this time round I was excited to finally see them at long last.

First though I had to make it through not one but two support bands (I've stated the case for checking out support bands before but having two on a bill is particularly sigh-worthy, especially on a Sunday night). The first, Rick Tomlinson, I had actually seen before supporting Mariee Sioux a couple of years back. Tomlinson  is an instrumentalist and a fine one too, who begins his set playing trumpet over a swirl of droning guitars, which was quite relaxing, in a feedbacky, jazzy way. The rest of his set was similar to the previous time I had seen him, although a little folkier this time (last time his music reminded me more of Krautrock than folk), with acoustic guitar songs that reminded me in part of Bert Jansch and Davey Graham's more Moroccan  influenced stylings. 

Next up were French band Unison who are apparently a "witch house" duo (although there were three of them on stage). I've never heard the term "witch house" before but apparently it's a mixture of drone, shoegaze and house-music, which does pretty much sum up Unison's style pretty succinctly. Led by a pretty girl-next-door brunette, whose shoes were the only hint of any kind of pop star allusions, she sang sweetly over raging,  noisy guitars, deep synths and strong beats provided by two backing men. Visually it wasn't particularly rewarding though, with so few on stage and little going on but they seemed to get a good reception even if the songs all bled into each other and sounded (at least where I was standing) rather samey. They weren't boring but I definitely had enough of them by the time they left the stage.

Finally, it was Mazzy Star's turn and they walked onto a darkened stage lit only by some moody, blue lighting and the backdrop of a film that showed different, interesting photos and visuals for each song (blue lakes, sweeping waves, black and white Super 8 films and old mildly erotic Victorian photographs). It was certainly atmospheric and pretty fitting for their music, even if it meant we couldn't see the band members that well, although from what I could see Hope Sandoval, wearing knee-length black boots, a short blood red dress and a leopard-print belt, looked as beautiful and youthful as ever. As a frontwoman Sandoval recalls Mark Lanegan, barely speaking or even looking at the audience, remaining still except to provide occasional percussion backing on the songs, but she still manages to be strangely engaging, probably due to her always haunting and sultry vocals. If I had one criticism it would be they were a little low in the mix, although I'm sure that's on purpose.

Beginning with one of my favourites from She Hangs Brightly, the Slapp Happy cover Blue Flower, the set was actually pretty heavy on songs from their debut album and surprisingly light on tracks from their most famous record So Tonight That I Might See. Not that it matters, I was pretty happy with that balance as I love their debut and their most famous song Fade Into You did indeed appear midway through to cheers of appreciation and it sounded wonderful, just as sadly beautiful as I remembered the first time I heard it all those years ago. Elsewhere there were also some new tracks, from their long rumoured forthcoming fourth album hopefully, and they sounded like a lovely blues-tinged version of classic Mazzy Star, with plenty of slide guitar and even some pedal steel (which you know I always get excited about). In fact one of the highlights was recent single Lay Myself Down, which has a gorgeous country noir vibe and sounded wonderfully warm and restful. The final song before the encore, Flyin' Low, was also impressive, with a cool slide guitar intro and a bluesy swagger that grooved along into a harmonica driven finale.

For the encore there was the gentle country strum of Among My Swan's I've Been Let Down and the full slow burning, feedback-filled glory of the title track of So Tonight That I Might See, making this a more than worthwhile gig, maybe not wow-inducing, but certainly full of lovely, drowsily beautiful moments. The stuff that always made them so captivating in the first place in fact. I'm definitely glad I finally got to see them.