Tripwire Reviews Mark Lanegan 60: A Celebration At London’s Roundhouse

Tripwire’s music staff reviews Mark Lanegan 60: A Celebration which took place at Camden’s Roundhouse on 5 December…

MARK LANEGAN 60: A CELEBRATION

Roundhouse, London NW1, 5 December 2024

A big-hearted testament to the late Mark Lanegan, who would have turned 60 two weeks ago, this starry tribute show featured many performers with far more fame and success than the gravel-voiced cult American singer-songwriter ever achieved himself. Among the celebrity acolytes paying musical homage were Pretenders legend Chrissie Hynde, Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode, Primal Scream frontman Bobby Gillespie and The Kills singer Alison Mosshart. Also playing prominent roles were Greg Dulli of Afghan Whigs and Queens of the Stone Age mainman Josh Homme, just two of dozens of artists that Lanegan worked with in his brief but prolific career. “Mark would have pretended to hate all this,” grinned Homme, “but he would have loved seeing all you guys here.”

Feted for his work with Screaming Trees, his eclectic solo output and his promiscuous collaborations, Lanegan died back in 2022, aged just 57. The cause of death remains private but his long struggles with heroin addiction and near-fatal brush with Covid had undoubtedly weakened him. Although his songs were full of existential doom and grizzled fatalism, they were mostly amplified into life-affirming anthems at this gathering by a swashbuckling multi-guitar supergroup.

Gahan opened and closed the show, dialling down his usual stadium-sized swagger to play to his smallest audience in decades. With his polished, lustrous baritone and flashy disco-pimp look, the Depeche Mode singer’s stage persona is the polar opposite of Lanegan in many ways, but he still brought a welcome aura of high-voltage superstar melodrama to several stand-out tracks, including a mighty version of Some Strange Religion.

 

Although Chrissie Hynde wore her icon status lightly, her luminous voice cut through the evening’s heavy fog of testosterone like an intoxicating perfume. Lending grace and sensuality to a triptych of Lanegan songs, notably the swooning saloon-bar waltz Kimiko’s Dream House, the eerily ageless rock queen also paid warm tribute to his widow Shelley, who was in attendance. Hynde’s magisterial voice really should have UNESCO world heritage status by now.

Spanning two and half hours, this show was a little too reliant on bluesy, blokey Americana at the expense of Lanegan’s more eclectic folk and electronica work. Even so, the performances covered a wide spectrum, with quieter numbers often the most powerful. Duke Garwood’s stripped-down country-noir ballad I Am The Wolf captured some of Lanegan’s carved-from-granite, Johnny Cash-level intensity while the semi-acapella version of Judgement Time by the superb backing vocalist trio was a delightful surprise. The gospel according to Mark Lanegan was often a stormy Old Testament affair, but this joyous interlude shone a welcome ray of sunshine into the darkness.