Justin Currie at the Epstein Theatre, Liverpool. Photograph by Nic Perrins.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

The noise that greeted Justin Currie as he came out on stage at the Epstein Theatre could not have been louder had Concorde decided to drop in unannounced on Hanover Street and empty its passenger cargo full of Scotland fans celebrating winning the World Cup, Independence from Westminster and the Return of Take The High Road and Taggart to television screens onto the theatre’s front door step. With a smile which was as broad as a swish of the Loch Ness Monster’s tail, Justin Currie sped straight into the set and gave a performance that somehow was enjoyed more by the citizens of Liverpool than by those who made his show in Edinburgh in August such a phenomenally enjoyable evening.

It was to be a night when everything came together at the right time and like a run at goal from Archie Gemmell was cheered from start to finish by a very vocal Liverpool crowd who wallowed in the sublime voice and noir like feel of the evening provided by the Del Amitri front-man.

The sell-out crowd were almost beside themselves in rapture as Justin Currie  played many of the songs from his latest album, Lower Reaches, and some old favourites which even without Concorde’s help  would have bought the house down; such was the adulation fostered upon Mr. Currie all night.

Kicking off an impressive set requires the right mood and if serendipity ever finds out that Justin Currie had been cribbing hers and the goddess of the Muse’s final exam sheet there might be a hell of a lot of explaining to do; as it is songs such as Every Song’s The Same, What is Love For?, the beautiful Priscilla and Fred Partington were more than enough to get the musical juices flowing and keep going like a vocal tsunami being whipped up by a guitar tempest and an audience who just couldn’t enough of Mr. Currie’s return to the city as a solo artist for the first time since 2007.

No matter how many gigs you go to in your life, at times you can be bowled over by the sheer strength of will and vocal supremacy the crowd has. The smile and depth of feeling that Justin Currie had displayed all evening took on an extra dimension as tracks such as I Hate Myself, Last To Know, Everyone I Love, Just Like A Man and Falsetto were played as if the audience were guiding the musician, as if every drop of strength was being mutually shared beneficially, it was something to sit back and take in, the like rarely being heard.   

There have been some incredibly good gigs already inside the Epstein Theatre since it re-opened but none surely that scaled the heights that both Justin Currie and the theatre full of backing singers provided as 2014 starts winding down to its natural end. This was a tidal wave of empiric emotions that had been harboured and locked up by each fan inside the building for seven years and it was with no wonder that those emotions burst loose and gave rise to a truly awesome set.

A fantastic night out, a highlight to remember!

Ian D. Hall