From start to finish McMorrow had the audience in the palm of his hand. With his finely tuned and effortlessly precise five-piece band behind him, the Irishman's vocals began swirling around the Epstein Theatre with ease and grace. The wonderfully sculpted lyricism and flawless consistency of the set-list left every member of the crowd in a state of complete pin-drop silence; apart from the effervescent applause at the end of each track of course. Aside from the performance, James' Irish charm also shone through as he set up a very personable rapport with his audience only adding to the intimacy of the gig. The venue itself also very much played into the hands of McMorrow as its' ambiance and image fitted perfectly into the musky, smoky tone of his voice. In a time were a new wave of Acoustic and Folk acts are flooding the music scene, I couldn't pick a better city venue to experience such a spectacle.
The haunting emotion established in McMorrow's critically acclaimed album, Early In The Morning, was mirrored perfectly throughout this live performance. His rawness and ability to bear everything in his music was heard in equal measure in understated tracks such as Follow You Down to the Red Oak Tree and more lively tracks such as Breaking Hearts and From The Woods!! At one point, despite issues during his sound-check, which were only noticeable due to him shyly and endearingly professing them to the crowd, McMorrow's band wandered off and left him on stage alone. The anticipation of the crowd hit boiling point. His lone performance of the infamous Higher Love really presented the crowd with a simplistic yet incredible overview of his vocal capability and totally captivated us all. The hold that he created over the audience was clear for all to see in other crowd favourites such as We Don't Eat and his sign-off track If I Had A Boat.
Beauty is a concept that is so often wasted on music in this day and age but the performance given that day in May was very much beautiful to the truest meaning of the word. The understated sound of his female conterpart with her subtle vocals and sweetly played mandolin were definitely a treat. On the other side of the scale though the spine-shaking drum-soaked instrumental climaxing seen in numerous tracks equally hit the spot. The key to this performance though lay mainly at the feet of the man himself. The raw emotion, plain enjoyment, endearing confidence and intimate relationship he strived for with his audience is what made Liverpool swoon note after note.
After his acclaimed sellout performance at The Kazimier back in February, McMorrow took to the almost unknown Epstein Theatre stage to a crowd with incredibly high expectations. It is safe to say that collectively, the lucky ones that managed to attend this masterpiece, were not disappointed. James Vincent McMorrow may have even just written himself into Sound City folklore with a performance that, in years to come, deserves to be the topic of numerous 'do you remember' conversations.
