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On May 22, In The Nursery ended their European tour of 1998 in Paris. They went on stage late in the evening (approximately 11:30 PM) at La Locomotive -- a club located right next door to the famous Moulin Rouge. A steady stream of people had trickled through the doors, ever since they swung open a few hours earlier, and by the time the first bars of the brief instrumental overture to the concert filled the high-ceilinged space, the club was filled to near capacity. What followed was an almost two hour long "retrospective" set, which culminated in no less than three encores and a shower of confetti. In the center of the stage, raised on a platform about a dozen inches off the stage floor, Klive Humberstone stood surrounded by four or five kettle drums, numerous other percussion instruments, and a pair of huge drum heads suspended horizontally behind him. Flanking him on the left, his brother Nigel commanded an equally extensive setup of synthesizers; and on his right, the longstanding associate of In The Nursery -- known simply as Q -- kept the music marching on his perennial snare drums. In front of Klive's impressive island of drums, the multi-lingual Dolores Marguerite C. completed the picture, performing the vocals with great grace and charm, and occasionally filling in on tambourine and drums. On two large white banners to either side of Klive, a steady procession of images -- mainly taken from the cover art of In The Nursery's various CD releases -- were projected, and from the ceiling the band was bombarded by a heavy arsenal of colored lights. Aided by the good acoustics at La Locomotive, the sound was very clear and dynamic, with a somewhat greater emphasis on percussion than the band's studio recordings. |
The first song of the set was "Poema," and aside from the instrumental "Salient," it was also the only song of the entire concert from In The Nursery's new album Lingua. Instead, the eighteen songs comprising the program on this evening, were selected from the band's entire history of releases. "Bombed" and "Perpetuum" from Anatomy Of A Poet; "Precedent" from Deco; "Duality" and "Thorns" from Duality; "Sense" and "Blue Religion" from Sense; and "L'Esprit" from the album of the same name. The long-standing live favourite "Mystery" also found its way into the set, along with two outstanding tracks -- "Miracle Road" and "Cobalt" -- from the more dance-oriented side-project Les Jumeaux. Finally, the two instrumental compositions "Haunted Dancehall" (a remix originally composed for Sabres Of Paradise), and "After Great Pain" (a passage from the film score to An Ambush Of Ghosts) were included, and gave everyone -- the band included -- a few moments to breathe. It was an extremely high powered set, which very appropriately ended with one of In The Nursery's oldest songs -- "Compulsion." |
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Aside from the generous and excellent selection of songs, In The Nursery was a pleasure to watch on stage. Much of the band's music is of course composed and performed on synthesizers, but unlike many bands relying strongly on modern technology, In The Nursery's show did not at all seem static. In fact, the visual and aural impact of Klive and Q's percussion, along with Dolores' great stage presence, attracted the attention to a degree, where one hardly stopped to think or care about how the music was created. Each member of the band apparently mastered a number of instruments, and at various points during the set, they would stand in for each other. Klive took over on the synthesizers, during his brother's performance on electric oboe towards the end of the show. Dolores assisted Q on drums at one point, and later both of them joined Klive at the kettle drums. Most of the songs were of course sung by Dolores, but both Nigel and Klive also took turns singing, and a recording of Colin Wilson's wonderful recitation for "Perpetuum" came in during the band's performance of this song. All four members of the band radiated a sense of dedication and true joy at being on stage that translated into the music. It seemed perfectly natural for them to be on stage, and there was nothing contrived or put-on about the show. This being the only time I have personally seen In The Nursery perform live, I can naturally not be certain that all their concerts are equally inspired. However, in Paris on May 22nd of 1998, they had no peers. |
