Simon James on Saxaphone for Dan Wilson at District 2015.
Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The message of Hope is plastered without impunity everywhere you look and the thought of the displaced and the homeless being made to suffer such indignity in the 21st Century is one that should cause society to feel absolute shame. Hope though is one thing that can never be taken away; in no matter what form hope should present itself, then hope survives.
As part of this year’s Hope Fest line up, a new hope for the ever growing pool of talent that Liverpool shares with the world is felt in the music supplied by Dan Wilson.
Dan Wilson’s music is stunningly powerful, it is laid down with the type of vigour reserved for Hercules as he toils away at completing the almost impossible tasks and it is one that is matched in every department, especially in the addition for the night of Simon James pounding away with a sweet caress and a lover’s tight embrace on saxophone and Mark Percy and Andy Frizzell joining in the fun with a wealth of experience behind them.
On the back of his highly rated new album All Love Is Blind, Dan Wilson took the District audience on a journey of discovery, the unearthing of new music to shout about from the centre of Williamson Square and sending out messages of pleasure to Bootle, St. Helens, Runcorn and far beyond the sight of the two majestic birds that guard the city from natural forces and despicable plunder.
The music was cool, adept, expertly handled and with a voice that enriched the evening no end. Tracks such as Five Nights Long, So it Goes, the lyrically striking 20 Greatest Hits From The Country to the Town, Worry and the new album’s title track all gave rise to the thought that there really is truly something in the local Mersey water that gives such prominence to the way music is heard, no matter the venue, no matter the time, a musician with earnest determination will always thrill the appreciative Liverpool crowd.
To come across Dan Wilson, to watch him perform under the scrutinising eye of a weekend of music and in the capital of hope and musical abundance is to understand that Hope can mean many things, but it truly only has one aim, to give hope in all its forms. Dan Wilson and his band offered that with sincerity and belief.
Ian D. Hall