Awesome post, Grisso. Seing her on Friday, so excited. Saw her on Stories tour, she's stone cold classic
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Sunday, 30 April 2017 23:58 (seven years ago) link
I can only wholeheartly agree with the praise of her live shows - the show I saw was amazing. What a performer she is! And the 10-piece band sounds tight and massive - it was a far cry from the (also great but intimate and messy) White Chalk solo show I had seen a few years ago. I'm catching the tour again in the summer when she comes back to Europe, can't wait.
Overall I like The Hope Six Demolition Project quite a bit - and it's grown on me a lot over the past year since I was pretty indifferent to it at first - but I think that the outtakes from the album she's released online (Guilty / A Dog Called Money / I'll Be Waiting) are stronger than some of the tracks that actually made the record. PJ doesn't do interviews anymore but according to her co-producers (Flood, Parish) the songs didn't 100% fit her vision for the album... which kind of makes me admire her even more for her self-editing instincts and discipline. It takes some strong focus to leave a song like Guilty off the record.
― mthrn, Monday, 1 May 2017 14:48 (seven years ago) link
Here's a review of the Austin show
http://music.blog.austin360.com/2017/04/29/at-packed-stubbs-pj-harvey-thrilled-fans-and-avoided-nostalgia/
excerpts from the review:
Harvey, looking like she had not aged a day in 20 years, took the stage with a nine-piece band who took the stage in single file, some playing horns (Harvey played a sax on and off throughout the evening), most playing drums. It looked and felt like the world’s most Episcopalian second line.
...fully half of the songs were from “Hope Six” with three from the enigmatic “White Chalk” and a smattering from older albums
SET LIST Chain of Keys The Ministry of Defense The Community of Hope The Orange Monkey A Line in the Sand Let England Shake The Words That Maketh Murder The Glorious Land Medicinals When Under Ether Dollar, Dollar The Devil The Wheel The Ministry of Social Affairs 50ft Queenie Down by the Water To Bring You My Love River Anacostia ENCORE: Guilty Is This Desire?
― curmudgeon, Monday, 1 May 2017 15:09 (seven years ago) link
That's a similar set to what we got in Houston. Seeing some of the other setlists, it looks like they shuffle around some of the newer songs in the latter part of the set from night to night, and rotate a couple of the catalog songs in and out from a pool. We got "To Talk To You" from White Chalk mid-set, and she closed with "The River" from ITD?. I'm not often jealous of Dallas, but they got "Highway 61 Revisited" and "The Last Living Rose" (neither of which we got) for an encore.
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 1 May 2017 19:48 (seven years ago) link
So happy to hear "The River" live
― Carlotta's Portrait (Ross), Monday, 15 May 2017 23:06 (six years ago) link
For her show near Washington DC tonight, she will be joined by Anacostia's Union Temple Baptist Choir, who were on the controversial song on her latest effort
― curmudgeon, Friday, 21 July 2017 12:15 (six years ago) link
She played a fair chunk of the album last Saturday as well as cuts from Let England Shake. She wore her saxophone like a guitar. Except for performances of "To Bring You My Love" and "Down by the Water" in the last ten minutes, she didn't cede an inch to audience expectations. She was in her own world.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 21 July 2017 12:19 (six years ago) link
What's funny is I was with a friend who professed to be a huge fan, particularly of the first three albums and "Songs," a friend who also supposedly really likes Nick Cave, and a friend whose politics lean left of left. And yet, he seemed really irked that she was playing mostly stuff from the most recent albums. I think it's more than likely an outdoor festival is simply not the best place to ask someone to meet someone half way, but yeah, she didn't cede an inch. Didn't deviate a bit from past sets on the same tour, either, so perhaps she and the band are just not currently equipped to change the script. From setlist to staging, this is what this tour is.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 July 2017 12:26 (six years ago) link
This might be an unpopular opinion but I think that the songs from Let England Shake and The Hope Six Demolition Project work amazingly well live. I was totally fine with just a handful of oldies (“50ft Queenie” / “Down by the Water” / “To Bring You My Love” / “Highway 61 Revisited” / “Is This Desire?”) thrown in at the very end of the show and for the encore. I guess I understand some people’s frustration that she refuses to play most of her biggest hits (e.g. Stories... have been 100% absent from her setlists on this tour) but then again, PJ Harvey is not really the kind of artist from whom you’d expect a nostalgia/best-of set.
That being said, the last time I saw her was at her own (fantastic) show. In two weeks I’m seeing her again, this time at an open-air festival gig. I wonder if my opinion will change.
― mthrn, Friday, 21 July 2017 14:28 (six years ago) link
They work better live, yes; the material's histrionic roots demand a performer with gusto. I thought The Hope Six an interesting failure.
― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 21 July 2017 14:29 (six years ago) link
Personally, new material or no, I'd prefer she play guitar again.
― Josh in Chicago, Friday, 21 July 2017 14:32 (six years ago) link
Alfred's dead on regarding Pj being in her own world. I thought the show in Seattle was top-notch, she's a consummate performer. Josh mentioned the setlist/staging above, I really do believe this is an intentional statement and that the older material would get in the way (hence why it's at the end). When she does switch gears to the old material the crowd goes wild and that serves her well. My only disappointment was "Near The Memorials.." in the encore - felt like she could've thrown a bone there, but she did play "River" so...
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Friday, 21 July 2017 17:17 (six years ago) link
She's kind of like Neil Young in that respect...you go see her, and you gonna see the show she wants to play. I can understand the way and why the material has been selected. The band she's got is more or less the band that was heavily involved in the creation of the last two albums, so of course that's the stuff they'll play and can sustain a set list alongside a few older songs (which really aren't rearranged the way they could have been for this band--imagine a "50ft. Queenie" with everybody doing percussion!). It's remarkably brassy/ballsy that this is how she's doing her first large-scale US tour in yoinks.
― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 21 July 2017 18:53 (six years ago) link
I’d also like to add that the White Chalk material—she’s been playing “When Under Ether,” “The Devil,” “To Talk to You,” and now apparently “Dear Darkness” and “White Chalk,” too—fits very well with the current show, despite the lyrical content of these songs being more introspective and not political/historiographical/journalistic.
This might be just my underdeveloped theory but . . . people often point out Let England Shake as a major sea change in her career (where the focus shifted from inspecting the personal to observing the world around her), whereas I think that the bigger step was her move from blues- to folk-inspired songwriting, which seems to have occurred around 2005-2006, when she was working on White Chalk—although some might say that songs like “Pocket Knife” or “The Desperate Kingdom of Love” from Uh Huh Her had foreshadowed it.
This is of course very simplifying, it’s not like every pre-2006 PJ song has its roots in blues and every post-2006 one in folk, but her vocal delivery definitely changed—and I’m not only talking about her singing in a higher register, but also about enunciation/articulation. Gone were the dirty riffs and rhythmic guitar playing in favour of strummed chords; the vocal melodies became simpler, the arrangements more acoustic, even her lyrics bear more resemblance to (or even directly reference) old folk songs. I guess that’s why the inward-looking White Chalk tracks fit nicely among the newer ones—they seem to come from the same musical family.
(I hope I make sense. Sometimes it’s tricky to put my thoughts into English words, and I’ve had two pints, so forgive me if it reads as gibberish and carry on.)
― mthrn, Friday, 21 July 2017 19:18 (six years ago) link
I agree with that - White Chalk is where she started her current approach, which is an approach I like as much as the first two records. Everything else in the middle is hit-or-miss for me.
― Mungolian Jerryset (bendy), Friday, 21 July 2017 20:00 (six years ago) link
This has been posted before, but I would KILL to see her play a version of Grow, Grow, Grow like this. The fact that she does whatever she wants and always has is what makes me respect her immensely though
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uctrQBJSY8
― Week of Wonders (Ross), Friday, 21 July 2017 21:13 (six years ago) link
http://www.undertheradarmag.com/news/pj_harvey_and_harry_escott_share_new_cover_of_english_folk_standard_an_acre/
― Kibbutzki (Jaap Schip), Thursday, 8 February 2018 17:15 (six years ago) link
aaaaaaaaaaamazingher voice! the song!
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, 8 February 2018 17:24 (six years ago) link
i like the arrangement a lot too
it's also super long! long live pj harvey
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Thursday, 8 February 2018 17:25 (six years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liRxipTbLWo
― kolakube (Ross), Sunday, 25 February 2018 03:21 (six years ago) link
anybody have any idea which pj song this is referencing at 3.56 - sounds like something off TBYML
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhttLXBkJvE
― kolakube (Ross), Sunday, 25 February 2018 03:29 (six years ago) link
That's beautiful, An Acre of Land, and pretty much a perfect fit for that movie I'd imagine.
― Le Bateau Ivre, Sunday, 25 February 2018 12:23 (six years ago) link
A new BBC4 radio documentary follows Polly around as she's composing music for a theatre adaptation of All About Eve. Lovely to see her creative process so intimately and up close (including her recording demos at home on a Tascam 4-track). She doesn't seem to be interested in being a alt-rock star/performer anymore, too — it seems that the last tour was kind of goodbye to that part of her life.
Also, excerpts of gorgeous music throughout (and I don't only mean the two songs that are the main focus of the documentary, but also about the instrumental and ambient pieces from all the different plays she's contributed to); makes me wish they'd release an anthology of her theatre scores.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0002g8h
― ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ, Monday, 11 February 2019 23:00 (five years ago) link
A new album - soundtrack to All About Eve - out this Friday.
https://i.imgur.com/t6ptDYE.jpg
01 Becoming02 Shimmer03 The Sandman [ft. Gillian Anderson]04 Waltz05 Descending06 Lieben07 Ascending08 Cadenza09 The Moth [ft. Lily James]10 Träume11 Arpeggio Waltz12 Change in C
Two tracks available here:https://pitchfork.com/news/pj-harvey-shares-2-new-songs-from-all-about-eve-play-listen/
― ˈʌglɪɪst preɪ, Monday, 8 April 2019 20:31 (five years ago) link
That's Phil Collins' daughter, right? If Phil could still play I would love to hear him on a PJ Harvey record.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 9 April 2019 00:11 (five years ago) link
Different people. Phil's daughter is Lily... Collins. This is the lead actress from Baby Driver.
― a large tuna called “Justice” (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 9 April 2019 01:09 (five years ago) link
Even so! Phil and PJ would be rad.
― Josh in Chicago, Tuesday, 9 April 2019 01:21 (five years ago) link