Celtic Connections
Calexico, The Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow
Keith Moore
This is a three star review
Hats off to Kris Drever and Friends, standing in at the last minute on Sunday for BC Camplight who, it seems, encountered some visa issues. No such problem for this Orcadian lad as happily took centre stage at a gig, he told us, he planned to attend anyway.
The lasting memory of this final night of Celtic Connections at the Old Fruitmarket will be that of a big Tex-Mex mash-up party as Calexico made a return to the city. I'm not sure if there's a Latin-American phrase for hooley, but to a packed house, that's what they seemed hell bent on creating.
But there's more to Calexico than mariachi and Latin colour. Taking a chance to preview songs from their as yet unreleased new album, the show kicked off with material that, while recorded in Mexico, had a decidedly mid-west, almost downbeat, Americana feel. One, Where The Angels Play, in particular, saw the seven piece group revisit Dylan circa The Band. Later a beautifully stripped back version of Fortune Teller brought out the best of head honcho Joey Burns' vocal styling.
Their rightly renowned take on Love's Alone Again Or piled more drama to Arthur Lee's original but a later cover of Joy Division's Love Will Tear Us Apart felt unnecessary. It's a song, to these ears at least, that's best left alone.
But when they were good, Calexico hit the groove. Sergio Mendoza's keyboards held down a menacing jazz rhythm that was as psychotic as a spaghetti western soundtrack. And over the top of it all were the glorious trumpets of Martin Wenk and Jacob Valenzuela who injected an infectious energy into favourites such as Crystal Frontier, inspiring much whooping and clapping from a crowd grateful of a winter warmer.
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