John Cale setlists 2010

Hobart 2010-01-22

Live at the Theatre Royal, Hobart, Australia - January 22, 2010.

Eight Hands: variation on the Theme 'Piano', featuring 4 pianists - Andrew Legg. Gabriella Smart, Paul Grabowsky, John Cale - each doing their separate performances in succession. Cale was the fourth and final player. He performed two pieces solo on piano over 20 minutes.

Setlist

Peace in the Rigging
Glen Gould at Work and Play

John Cale, meanwhile, the final performer, was a benevolent Rumpelstiltskin, his piano not a loom but a spinning wheel, as he nodded his sleepy head and paddled his right foot up and down. He, like Smart, sits at the piano as a sort of matter-of-fact necromancer, making magic happen. And, indeed, Cale did create a literal sort of magic: his piano was hooked up to a synthesiser, which set forth random and fascinating patterns (a call and response, perhaps somehow akin to what gospel music does?), as though the music had taken on a life of its own.

Cale presented two improvised pieces - "Peace in the Rigging," dreamlike and sentimental, "Glenn Gould at Work and At Play," sprightly, whimsical and with a more direct use of synthesiser effects. At 67, renowned as a living icon, it's nice to know that Cale, in fact, doesn't take himself too seriously. With his skinny jeans and pink and bleached hair, he's an ageless figure, full of energy and ideas and as relaxed in front of an audience as you or I might be in front of our TV at home.

(Thanks: Nolan)