REVIEWS
Róisín Murphy by Victoria Wai
ARAB STRAP @ BOILER SHOP, NEWCASTLE (09.09.21) Words: Ali Welford Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton’s last outing in Newcastle was, to put it mildly, a bit special. However, even as they smashed their first show in a decade on one of The Cluny’s finest ever nights, you’d have received long odds on them returning five years later, buoyed by one of the finest records of their career. That, though, is precisely where the revitalised Scots find themselves following March’s spectacular As Days Get Dark. If indeed there were any, tonight swiftly puts doubts to rest; the reverence greeting The Turning Of Our Bones, Here Comes Comus! and Fable Of The Urban Fox confirming their status as instant classics. This isn’t a mere re-run of 2016 with new cuts subbed in, though. Yes, the likes of Girls Of Summer, New Birds and Piglet are all present, correct and as magical as ever, yet they’re also flanked by surprise additions omitted from that initial reanimation. Fan favourite Love Detective, for instance, receives a welcome airing in all its paranoid, unnerving glory, but even that’s topped by the colossal Blackness, a lengthy deep-cut recalling the days when Arab Strap and close contemporaries Mogwai formed the impenetrable apex of brooding Lowland misery. That tonight isn’t quite on par with their previous visit is a moot point; joy mightn’t be their forte, but there’s plenty here to leave the Strap hordes mightily satisfied.
RÓISÍN MURPHY @ BOILER SHOP, NEWCASTLE (13.09.21) Words: Ali Welford In a just world, Róisín Murphy would be rounding off the finest 12 months of her career, arriving at the Boiler Shop having slain dancefloors, festival fields and concert halls left, right and centre. Of course, our actual (shit) timeline has limited the Irish star’s outings to a clutch of glitzy TV slots. Fun excursions, no doubt – but it’s testament to this born and bred performer’s character that she rocks up at this first ‘proper’ gig for the best part of two years with a ‘better late than never’ outlook, relishing the energy of her audience, the countless costume changes, and the sheer joy of being onstage which a handful of primetime appearances simply cannot satiate. Beginning on the venue’s mezzanine and ending with an unexpected
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flamenco encore, tonight’s set finds room for both established classics and a smattering of Moloko favourites. Really, though this disco-fuelled performance is all about Róisín Machine – last year’s powerhouse album through which Murphy fully indulges her inner diva. The strut throughout is utterly irresistible, from the groovy licks of Incapable and theatrical throb of Narcissus to a reworked Murphy’s Law, an ardent subscriber to one of music’s unwritten rules – that if you must have a de-facto eponymous track, you’d best make it a banger! It’s all tremendous fun, underpinned by the palpable sense that she’s loving it just as much as the rest of us.
WAXA BELTA HELTA SKELTA @ LAUREL’S, WHITLEY BAY (16.09.21) Words: Leigh Venus Tapping into that weird seam of Geordie sublime mined by the likes of Rowan McCabe, Faithful Johannes and Your Aunt Fanny, multi-disciplinary artist and all-around unleasher of inner freaks Serena Ramsey has conjured an irreverent tale of abandonment, cults and mammy issues with Greggs at its dark heart. A deeply Geordie one-person show anchored by a high-octane, physically dangerous performance from Ramsey, Waxa is ostensibly a tale about what becomes of someone whose mother abandons the family to join a cult. Yet, the core narrative is merely the inner sausage around which the surreal and often explosive pastry wraps. If Greggs isn’t sponsoring this thing, then the world’s greatest bakers have missed a trick – there are places here that famous blue logo was never intended to go. Barrelling through set-pieces, monologues, dance routines, religious rituals and audience participation, Ramsay less tells a story than sells a mood, fronting the show with so much glorious physical comedy that it isn’t until the end we realise we’ve been sucker-punched and captivated by the confusion, heartbreak and even joy that washes over us when our world is rocked, and we have to rebuild all that we are. A fearless talent, Ramsay is dead-set on a mission to challenge convention and explode conceptions of how theatre ‘should’ be done. Simultaneously grounded and transcendent, Waxa Belta Helta Skelta is an arresting, hysterical work from an authentically local artist that resonates long after the last flakes of pastry have fallen.
