HMV Picture House, Edinburgh
4 stars
Sparks may have come late to the concept album party with their 2009
album, The Seduction of Ingmar Bergman, but theatricality has always
been essential to Ron and Russell Mael's oeuvre, from composer and
keyboardist Ron's deadpan demeanour to Russell's sprite-like enthusiasm
onwards. This is more apparent than ever throughout the first of UK
date of the siblings Two Hands, One Mouth tour. As the name suggests,
the duo leave themselves unadorned either by band-mates or onstage
scenery, occupying a simply-lit black box space instead. The pair have
even penned a lasciviously-inclined theme song, which plays as looped
pre-show music sounding like a choir of Oompa Loompas.
Ron Mael enters alone to tinkle out a teasing overture of snatches from
Sparks' greatest hits before his brother finally comes on sporting a
tweedy outfit suggesting a silent movie director turned gamekeeper. The
piano-based sprawl across selected highlights from a forty-year
back-catalogue that follows makes it plain that Sparks' raison_d’être
is warped show-tunes that mash-up Gilbert and Sullivan, Noel Coward
and Brecht and Weill with a wilfully wordy pop-art chutzpah.
While Ron remains seated for such a glorified lounge-bar cabaret,
Russell swoops both physically and vocally across the stage. For
excerpts from the Ingmar Bergman album, Ron dons a beret for a
spoken-word routine as Bergman himself. This Town Ain't Big Enough For
The Both of Us could be a template for The Associates' Party Fears Two,
while an extended Beat the Clock sounds like Suicide playing a gay
disco. The song's urgency even encourages Ron to leave his keyboard to
indulge in a brief front-stage shuffle before they finale with their
new song, Oompa Loompas to the last.
The Herald, October 22nd 2012
ends
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