In the heart of Copenhagen there’s a beautiful art deco venue called Hotel Cecil. Here, on a crispy Spring night, we’re welcomed by the warmth of the golden lights and green velvets that adorn an intimate concert room. Tonight, a couple of hundred of people are going to experience Tom Smith of Editors presenting his first solo album There Is Nothing in the Dark That Isn’t There in the Light and a handpicked selection of Editors covers.
The atmosphere is calm, people are taking their seats or getting something at the bar, the voices are kept low at a pleasant conversational volume and the soft music from the speakers helps getting in the mood for the concert.
The stage is cozy: a thick carpet, a floor lamp that clearly belongs to the living room of that old aunt we all have, a wooden crate that doubles as side table and instruments for two, as Nicholas Willes, already touring member of Editors, helps Tom as second guitar and keyboard.
It’s 20:00 sharp when the lights go down and the show begins, with the musicians that take their seats on the stools.
To set the tone of the night, the first three songs are from the new solo album and their rendition live is quite good: the heartfelt songwriting pairs beautifully with the deep voice that Tom is exhibiting tonight, also thanks to a cold he’s fighting. He actually even takes some time to apologise for it, claiming that he might have a voice “sexier than ever”. Someone from the crowd voices what we all think: “Your voice is always sexy!” and the reply came quick before the next song: “I said even more sexy!”.
Fine with me: sexy voice and a solid setlist full of Editors classics are something that can definitely make my night and – spoiler alert – I wasn’t disappointed.
There’s obvious continuity between the songs taken by the solo album and Editors songs in this stripped down setup; All the Kings become very intimate while The Weight is ghostly even when played by only two instruments.
Overall is the warmth of the interpretation that makes this concert something that should not be missed: full band and full energy or stripped down to the strings of two guitars, the Editors songs hold up magnificently along the new solo material.
The boundary “singer as solo artist” vs. “leader of the band” is very blurred tonight as Tom Smith really owns the songs even without a full band behind him.
As the setlist unfolds, it’s time for a version of No Sound but the Wind that claws the stomach.
There’s something deep in listening to the songs in a way that the lyrics are so crystal clear that reverberate with the soul.
Editors and solo songs blend together seamlessly, of course it’s the voice that glue them together, but it feels like they grew organically in the songwriting of Tom Smith.
Two of the cathartic peaks of the evenings: The Phone Book is a rollercoaster of emotions, while An End Has a Start becomes a trip down memory lane, the perfect cinematic rendition of sepia toned images of myself 20 years ago living one of the first ends and new starts of my life.
During Leave we had a moment when the cough had the best over the singing and the voice “went from sexy to the other end of the scale”. After a short, needed break, the concert resumed with Munich, that, although so recognisable, morphed into something slow, subtle, that sneaks under your skin and makes you shiver from the inside.
The most awaited rendition of the night though is Papillon: when I saw it on the setlist I couldn’t really figure out how it could have sounded without all the electronics behind it. Well, it sounds well but in full honesty, this one is better full band. The rhythm sure picks up but it hasn’t that devastating feeling of going down an insane water slide that it usually has. Sorry.
The concert has been going on already for more that one and a half hours in a venue so religiously silent that we have lost the perception of time, until the dreaded announcement “Two more songs and then we’ll fuck off”. Good things never last forever but knowing when they have to end is no less painful.
Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors closes the evening, with an unexpected cheerful take, more round, more full than the rest of the set. The famous end on a high.
If on stage they were expecting the crowd to stand up and dance, though, they were left slightly disappointed.
The last notes fade, guitars down, lights on and crowd up, in a very well deserved standing ovation to tribute a magnificent artist.
