PJ HARVEY
London Brixton Academy 30th September 2001


It's the mark of a great musician that they can let their music speak for them, and Polly Harvey certainly puts her powers to use tonight. Her album 'Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea' won the Mercury Music Prize on the day of the terrorist attacks in America, and ironically the 'City' in the title is NYC. So instead of her usual grand entrance we get another effective opening, with Polly dressed in black, coming out on her own to play a solo version of 'This Mess We're In' - a song that is hugely evocative of New York and perhaps the best way she could possibly have addressed the situation. Later on in the set, more positive NY-set songs like 'You Said Something' or 'Good Fortune' are significantly absent.
That's not to say that the gig was maudlin. In fact the opposite is true, as this performance equalled the one I saw earlier in the year. The band come on after 'This Mess' and they launch into a new one (well, new to me) and then a full-blooded 'Mansize'. The screaming electronica of 'The Sky Lit Up' is next, and it seems she's intent on giving any cosy "let's go and see the Mercury Prize winner" passers-by a bit of a jolt.
However, it's not long before they're into the material that everyone knows, and the likes of 'The Whores Hustle', 'Kamikaze', 'This Wicked Tongue' and 'A Place Called Home' make up the body of the main set. Slotted in amongst those is a fantastic new song which I assumed was called 'City Boy'. It's a really thrilling taster for the next PJ Harvey album, and I find out later that it's actually called 'Will's Song' and was written for Ms Harvey by Will Oldham (Bonnie Prince Billy)! 'Send His Love To Me' reminds us how strong her back catalogue is, and another impressive new one centres around a mostly spoken lead vocal. Things step up a gear with a manic 'Big Exit' and a very welcome 'Dry' which still sounds nice and raw eight years on. The main set drifts to a close with 'Horses in my Dreams' with Polly's voice as its most haunting.
Before long they're back, and the 'encore' is so long it's almost like another separate set. 'Angeline' kicks it off, and a couple more new tunes follow, then it's flat out for a while as they pulverise 'This is Love', 'Sheela na gig' (hooray!) and most surprisingly 'Hair' from the debut album! 'Down by the Water' would seem to be the logical set closer (See, she does play singles sometimes!) but then she does a bizarre little song accompanied by her keyboard player on a tiny little piano. It's quite a dramatic end and Brixton goes eerily quiet and the song does seem to end with a bit of 'Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep'.
Consistently entertaining and certainly not predictable.

PJ HARVEY/ GIANT SAND
London Shepherds Bush Empire 12th February 2001

With tickets for these three shows changing hands outside the venue for up to £70, clearly PJ Harvey's latest album ' Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea', has increased her popularity to such an extent that three relatively large gigs in London don't even come close to meeting the demand for tickets.
On all three nights the semi-legendary Giant Sand have the unenviable task of opening the show and playing to Harvey devotees. They may be her favourite band (allegedly) but the audience is polite rather than reverential. It's ironic that after nearly 20 years on the go, Giant Sand are probably better known for the alterego of its rhythm section - in case you didn't realise, Joey Burns and John Convertino are better known as Calexico. (though there is a rumour that they can't play the gig and they've got in two guys from Grandaddy instead- unfortunately I'm too far away to confirm this!) Having said that, Giant Sand was always dominated by its main songwriter Howe Gelb and he's quite the showman tonight- flicking between guitar and piano with wild abandon. Some gems from their back catalogue - a lot of them collected on the sublime 'Selections circa 1990-2000' album- show why they are the godfathers of alt.country, but ultimately they some of us impressed but most of us puzzled. Still these shows have one some way to raising their profile in this country.
The night belongs to Polly and her band though, and she makes a grand entrance. It looks to us from our distant vantage point that she's wearing nothing but knee-high boots! Closer inspection reveals that she has actually got herself a very figure-hugging pale sequined dress. The band launch into 'Big Exit' (the first song on the recent album) and there's no stopping them. Quite simply this was one of the most PJ Harvey performances I've seen. Quite a lot of material from 'Stories..' gets an airing - the rockier ones like 'The Whores Hustle' and 'This is Love' give the band a chance to shine - although 'You Said Something', 'This Mess We're In' (without Thom Yorke this time) and 'Good Fortune' probably show her Polly's voice at it's best.
With a strong back catalogue it's cool to see that she hasn't neglected her old material. Surprisingly the singles from the electronica influenced 'Is This Desire' aren't played, but the countryish 'Angeline' and the psychotic 'The Sky Lit Up' are. 'Cmon Billy' and 'Dry' also make an appearance and the mighty encores include a fantastic solo version 'Rid of Me' (like the demo vesion all those years ago) and the classic 'Sheela-na-Gig'.
Even this early in the year, I doubt I'll see a better show this year.

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