Not wanting to be pigeonholed as a folk singer in his later career, Lloyd Cole's latest visit to Australia sees a subtle reinvention of his live performance.
Cole has always been looking forward (or maybe that should be ahead) writing songs about being old that he has slowly grown into, so there is something meta about these songs being played retrospectively.
Ever since he left The Commotions and went solo, he has been just that although he has previously been accompanied here by his son William or Neil Clark (of The Commotions) and the complete band line-ups elsewhere.
This tour is the first time he has shrugged off the image of acoustic troubadour, which he has more often than not been pegged as in the live setting. A quarter of a century on from the rock & roll stylings of his eponymous debut, he's now playing entire sets with electric guitar accompaniment for the first time.
The tour has been billed as 'Solo Electric 2 Sets'. and this is exactly what you get but don't get too excited (remember this is Lloyd Cole).
The closest this show gets to the needle jumping the groove is during the second set when Lloyd plays 'Pay For It' in a Nile Rodgers funk style of playing that some of the previous songs had been leaning towards or when the instrumental outro to Springsteen's 'Born To Run' is added to 'Hey Rusty'.
Abstaining from any opening comments, Lloyd commences the first set with '29', the autobiography of opening lyric 'life begins at 30...' being introduction enough for the solo performance to follow.
Fifteen years on from the last time he played at The Gov, he comments: "I try to go straight, but you keep pulling me back." Lloyd tends to let the songs mostly speak for themselves, his somewhat humorous stage banter limited to footnotes and inviting audience participation in the form of singing.
He clarifies: "I look like I might disapprove of anything you want to do. . . but that's just my face," but discourages clapping along, pointing out there is no drummer to lead.
With no new songs played tonight (24 March), his last album 'On Pain' having been released prior to his late 2023 tour, this really is a retrospective show across a generous two sets.
His initial burst of creativity with The Commotions (most likely why most of the audience are here tonight) is served by early set renditions of 'Rattlesnakes', 'Perfect Skin' and 'Brand New Friend'.
After playing the wordy 'Night Sweats' from the electronic album 'Guesswork', he comments: "That's from an album that came out about eight years ago. If you've never heard it, it's fantastic."
It's hard to tell if his lack of modesty is serious (the face again) or an act, but it's humorous all the same. Another similarly amusing moment is during another song when he comically announces "guitar solo" in place of the absence of one.
Before the set is over he makes mention of being his own support and tells us he will return to headline. Although this second set really is more of the same, commencing with The Commotions' 'Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?', it feels as though Lloyd is hitting his stride and displaying more versatility.
Perhaps he has just held back songs for a better second half, the Nile Rodgers style of playing hinted at earlier in the evening coming to fruition on 'Pay For It', contrasted by the minimalist downtrodden waltz of 'The Afterlife', the 'Wicked Game' reverb of 'Charlotte Street' or the country-rock rendition of 'No Blue Skies'.
'The Idiot' is delivered as a surprisingly upbeat sing-along (given the dark subject matter) and afterwards Lloyd praises the audience telling us it was the best he has ever heard this song.
Following his 'Born To Run' outro addition to 'Hey Rusty', he comments: "I probably should finish with that but I won't," and he continues on for one more song before an encore of 'Lost Weekend' and then a reserved 'Forest Fire', surprisingly not as funky as he could have taken it given his uptake of the electric guitar for this tour.
Given his health woes on his last visit to Adelaide in 2023, this was always going to be a better show than that, and with the use of electric guitar to reinvigorate his back catalogue it was raised up just that little bit more.
