Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
Rarely do you go out to see a musician on stage for the first time and come away feeling as though you have seen the blossoming stages of hybridisation of elegant poetry and the subtleness of keyboards notes wafting through the air as if caught on the wings of a Red Admiral in full flight. However for anybody in the Zanzibar Club in Liverpool ahead of a long steamy night, that is exactly what they would have felt stirring as they watched Luke Cusato perform.
A voice that captured the imagination so quickly, the deft sleight of hand that caressed the keyboards and caused those present to hush from first note to last, only tempered by the sound of a soda syphon crackling embarrassingly but not overpoweringly towards the end of Luke Cusato’s set.
In local terms it was like watching Stephen Langstaff stride the stage, guitar in hand, voice beautifully primed, the resonance of the lyrics catching the ear and the feeling of welcoming solitude that is enforced when a great voice whispers down your ears and causes you revaluate and understand your love of music again.
Being first on in any venue can be sometimes demeaning to the artist as they don’t get the vast throng of people coming down to watch them, however it also true that to keep a secret just a little longer, to have that sound in a few people’s ears for perhaps a few days before the word really spreads is something to savour and in a set that contained two covers, both delivered well, the half hour Mr. Cusato was on stage for was enough to harbour that enigma with relish.
Opening with She Said, Luke Cusato soon followed that up with the intense, both physically and lyrically, Blue Skies, the gorgeous and unruffled Call Me, the adoring Hopeless before finishing off with a song title that typifies the abundance of hopeful clarity that you wish you could install into everybody with a talent, Nothing to Lose.
Certainly Luke Cusato didn’t have anything to lose, however, he gained so much by performing out of his skin and directly into anyone’s heart that just happened to realise that support acts are not just there to kill time at the bar with. Get too engrossed with the elsewhere and not what’s happening infront of you and you might miss something rather special.
Ian D. Hall