ROSALIE CUNNINGHAM LIVE AT THE VOODOO ROOMS, EDINBURGH
John Scott dons his paisley-patterned loon pants (metaphorically at least) for a fab night out with Rosalie Cunningham and band.
How do you attempt to describe Rosalie Cunningham’s music? There is a touch of psychedelia for sure and the aroma of grease paint and circus sawdust is never too far away. If a 21st Century Alice Lidell found her way to Wonderland, there’s a good chance that Rosalie and her band would be the afternoon entertainment at The Mad Hatter’s tea party.
Tonight’s gig had been postponed from earlier in the year due to Rosalie contracting laryngitis. I’d been hoping for a decent audience turnout for this rescheduled gig but as Rosalie and the band take to the stage, numbers are possibly just short of 100. I can’t help but feel that this might be an early sign of the cost of living crisis hitting home rather than a reflection of Rosalie’s popularity.
The band opens with Start From The Corners, the first track from the new album, Two Piece Puzzle. It’s an instrumental, reminiscent of an excerpt from some long-lost Jethro Tull concept album but without the one-legged flute playing. There is a flute on stage though so maybe that will come later.
The crunchy, spiraling riff that opens Ride On My Bike really kicks things off with spacey synth swoops from keyboard player Aaron Bolli-Thompson. “You think you’re alive, but have you ever been for a ride on my bike?” Rosalie sings, mixing menace with the promise of irresistible pleasure.
“Can we get this motherfucking disco ball?” enquires Rosco Wilson, co-vocalist, guitarist and Rosalie’s partner, pointing out the large mirror ball that hangs above the audience. It’s not usually a feature of gigs at The Voodoo Rooms but halfway into Dethroning Of The Party Queen it springs into life, scattering shards of light around the room and enhancing the atmosphere.
The last two songs were from Rosalie’s self-titled debut solo album but we are back to Two Piece Puzzle again for Donovan Ellington and Donny Pt 2. Rosalie breaks out her electric 12-string for the cautionary two-part tale of a simple family man who sets out on a seafaring adventure. Donny Pt 2 is a shanty-life affair and a couple of bearded chaps in the audience oblige by breaking out into a brief hornpipe dance.
Duet sees Rosalie as an ingenue actress, lured by the promise of silver-screen superstardom. Rosco, tainted by jealousy, belittles her talents and accuses her of infidelity. But then comes the coda: “Not much room for mushrooms in the world that we are living in; the world that we are living in, there’s not much room for mushrooms in”. Perhaps the whole thing has been a hallucination.
Other highlights of the night include a surprise song that Rosalie warns us we might not recognise until the words kick in, and she’s not wrong. It’s a freakbeat version of Eleanor Rigby and it is fabulous. Special mention at this point goes to bass player Claudia Gonzalez Diaz and drummer Baptiste Gautier. Baptiste, looking like a Magical Mystery Tour-era Ringo Starr with a massive Afro, has been in the band for a whole two weeks, standing in for usual sticksman Itamar Rubinger and could show Liz Truss (remember her?) a thing or two about hitting the ground running.
We finish up with a couple of songs by Rosalie’s old band, Purson; Chocolate Money and Tempest and the Tide, the latter featuring Claudia on the flute, albeit with both feet firmly on the ground.
It’s been a fantastic evening of psych-tinged rock. It’s just a pity that there were not more people here to see it. Like the protagonist in Duet, Rosalie Cunningham deserves bigger things.
Setlist
Start With the Corners
Ride on my Bike
Dethroning of the Party Queen
Donovan Ellington
Donny pt. Two
Duet
Fossil Song
Riddles and Games
Fuck Love
The Liner Notes
Rabbit Foot
Eleanor Rigby
Chocolate Money
Tempest and the Tide
John Scott
