Duke Special
By Stuart Holmes | Fri, 01 May, 2009
DUKE Special (or Peter Wilson, to give him his real name) unassumingly performs to a near capacity venue tonight, strengthened by his backing band and intermittent contributions from the evening’s support acts.
The gig is in support of I Never Thought This Day Would Come, the recently released third album from the Belfast-based singer-songwriter.
The audience this evening consists predominantly of dedicated fans; his polite, softly spoken introductions to songs are applauded as much the songs themselves.
Whilst many of the songs tonight come from this new album, the set list does not cover it to the extent that you might usually expect from such a tour.
The recent single, Sweet Sweet Kisses is introduced surprisingly early to make way for a varied mix of material spanning his career to date. The song itself is nevertheless a highlight of the whole performance, with its jaunty sound juxtaposing the songs tale of a failed relationship.
This is followed by a pleasant version of the title track of the current album with assistance on vocals from the uniquely dressed Foreign Slippers.
Experimental
Whilst Duke Special’s more commonly known songs are generally traditional and radio-friendly in their composition, some of his material is questionably experimental, and this comes across strongly during this live show.
Sometimes this experimentation works well; namely in the recital of Nothing Comes Easy near the end of the main set. Diggin’ An Early Grave, however, spoils its promising start with prolonged sound effects at the end which turn Duke Special’s usually subtle idiosyncrasies into an overblown distraction from his true talents.
Theatrical feel
Despite this, the enclosed stage at Academy 3 is arguably the perfect setting for the more niche elements of his performance as they often have a noticeable theatrical feel to them, conjuring up images of the ‘music hall’ form of variety entertainment.
To counteract his earlier self-indulgence however, he later performs Why Does Anybody Love?, which manages to silence the room, with the rarity of such an occasion being highlighted by a man in the middle of the crowd looking around in pleasant disbelief.
The curfew is extended slightly for a long encore which commences with an inspired, piano-led cover of Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs. The night ends with crowd favourite Freewheel, which comes with another contribution from Foreign Slippers, and a rousing rendition of Last Night I Nearly Died (But I Woke Up Just In Time).
Whilst Duke Special may be an acquired taste at times, both the crowd and the artist himself leave the venue thoroughly satisfied, which is a truly fitting testament to the strength of tonight’s overall performance.
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