Barry Adamson
London Emporium
The Emporium is, with its mock medieval iron hangings and gargoyle bedecked fountains, quite possibly the ideal place for a Barry Adamson gig. Shame that they never made more of it really. We came hoping for something a little bit different and ended up with an average muchness. Barry kind of has the faux-croon thing off to a T, but these live arrangements don't much flatter his voice. The whole thing lacks bite really - which is sad when you consider the potential of his comedy-doom thing. A blacker, more menacing sound would have pushed the boat right out. As it was, we got some fairly bland meandering through the album material with an air of arrogance. Almost as though we should dig this because it's supposed to be cool, instead of them coming to impress us by changing anything at all. In the end Barry loses, because this flag has been waved quite a lot before.
