Tricky @ Fine Line Music Cafe

There are some shows where the connection made between the artist and the audience is evident, and that bond goes a long way towards making the show a memorable one. And there are some shows, like Tricky’s performance at the Fine Line, where that connection is not only apparent, but it’s tangible, demonstrated by Tricky’s plunge into the crowd during the encore of his two-hour set to shake hands and thank nearly all of the audience in the packed club for coming out to the show. It was a manifestation of a relationship between Tricky and the crowd that had been growing stronger as the evening progressed, and made what was already a memorable performance even more indelible.

I found it interesting that the band would take the stage to their selected pre-show music (a rather venomous hip-hop track), and allow for the entire track to play out while they were on stage, readying their various instruments, and giving Tricky a chance to light an enormous blunt, the first of many he would smoke as the night progressed. Tricky, born Adrian Thaws, had a five-piece backing band with him for this show, with a bassist, drummer, guitarist, a keyboard player and vocalist Francesca Belmonte, who would feature prominently in the nights proceedings. By the time the band kicked things off with an instrumental version of “You Don’t Wanna,” both Tricky and Belmonte still had their backs to the audience, just bobbing their heads to the beat, and, in Tricky’s case, getting lifted for the show. “Past Mistake,” from the excellent 2008 record Knowle West Boy, turned out to be a stirring, slow building number that found Tricky not only getting comfortable behind the mic, but also stripping down to his customary shirtless stage ensemble. He guided the band, as he would all evening, like a conductor, raising and lowering his hands to indicate either a raise in volume or for them to bring things down a bit. And he really lost himself towards the end of the song, bellowing out the lyrics with abandon, thrashing about wildly as the song took him over. Unfortunately, as it is with all Tricky’s shows, he would defer to Belmonte for a good majority of the early part of the set, and while she has an incredible voice that carried many of the night’s songs, she lacks the magnetic, show-stopping persona of Tricky, who spent nearly all of the songs Belmonte was singing with his back to the audience, conducting the band and smoking a steady stream of herb.

But thankfully, Belmonte had the pipes to make a lot of these songs hers for the evening, doing a lively version of Public Enemy’s “Black Steel In the Hour of Chaos” originally done by Martina Topley-Bird on Tricky’s first solo record Maxinquaye, and a soulful, impassioned take on “Puppy Toy” that was one of the early highlights of the 22 song set. Tricky again asserted himself on a fiery version of “Girls,” singing into two microphones at once, gripping them tightly as he directed the band to keep up with his intensity. He kept that fire going on the propulsive “Council Estate,” which he turned into a lengthy, volatile rocker, continually gesturing to the band to get louder and louder. And that was perhaps the most surprising aspect of the show, how rock based most of the tracks were, as opposed to the trip-hop element that Tricky helped create. He has intentionally strayed far from a lot of those earlier elements of his music, and goes for the hard-rock climaxes to a lot of his songs, dragging them on a bit more than necessary perhaps, but that energy is undeniable, and went a long way towards building that connection with the audience, who were unquestionably enlivened by the harder edge that his songs have taken on.

In addition to the P.E. cover, the band also did a heartfelt take on XTC’s “Dear God,” a rapid fire cover of Rakim’s “Lyrics of Fury,” and incorporated elements of Grandmaster Flash’s “The Message” into a tremendous version of the Pre-Millennium Tension track “Vent” that was one of the highlights of the lengthy seven song encore. A lot of these songs gave me the sense, as did the tracks where only Francesca sings, that this was just music Tricky liked getting high to, ones where he would just have his back to the crowd, smoking and grooving to the music the band was making. He’s always had a bit of a tough time with the responsibilities that come with being a frontman, constantly surrounding himself with guest vocalists to deflect attention from himself and notoriously shrouding his stage in darkness while performing. And this tactic wouldn’t have worked if the band didn’t carry off the songs so well, allowing Tricky the freedom to lose himself (and continue to smoke) towards the back of the stage while the focus shifted to the band and Belmonte’s vocals.

“Overcome” was a superb way to end the main set, and it gave Belmonte a chance to add her flavor to Tricky’s re-imagining of Massive Attack’s “Karmacoma.” It set the stage nicely for the epic encore where the connection between artist and audience was truly solidified. After the rousing version of “Vent,” the band kicked into a blazing cover of Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades” that found Francesca handling the vocals while Tricky jumped into the crowd to dance and thrash about with the audience. He eventually made his way through most of the crowd, exchanging hugs and high-fives with a majority of the spectators, as the band was forced to play an extended version of the song as he basked in the adoration of the audience and thanked all of us for coming.

And he thanked us all again by playing a spirited version of “Tricky Kid” that really set the place off. He told the crowd that they would normally be done with the show at this point, but “we were just too good of an audience.” So, the set continued with three more songs, including a stunning version of “Joseph” that found Tricky placing the microphone over his heart, mimicking the beat of his heart in time with the music, as if all of us in attendance didn’t know by that point that he had completely poured his soul into his performance that evening.

And, after inviting all of us to have a drink with him at the bar after the show, he was off again, leaving the band to close the set out without him. And that was an encapsulation of the show as a whole, with Tricky drifting in and out of focus during the set, counting on the band to pick up the slack while he hid from the spotlight. But while he was behind the mic, Tricky was a singular and stirring performer with a personality and a presence that can win over any audience, leaving all of us transfixed with the majesty and mood of his music.

[Review by Erik Thompson, photos/video by Chris DeLine.]

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Also: Tricky on Later with Jools Holland