Live – Lloyd Cole at Brighton Dome – Breaking Glass Magazine

Lloyd Cole at Brighton Dome, 31st October 2023

When Rattlesnakes debuted back in the 80s, its subtlety stood out in terms of musicianship and lyrical talent – obvious despite itself if you will. With latest album On Pain and a string of live dates, it’s a joy to see and hear that Lloyd Cole is still producing understated but beautifully eloquent music, his voice as smooth as ever, albeit aided on the night by Manuka honey and whisky if the description of his cup contents is to be believed.

With a veritable treasure chest of songs to dig into, the evening is split into two halves, acoustic set first. Opening with Don’t Look Back and Mr Malcontent, the opulence of The Dome is a perfectly matched backdrop to the purity of the music. “You’ve probably worked out by now that we’re your warm up act, then there’ll be an interval, and after that we’ll come back as your headliners”, Cole quips, noting, “It’s a bit chilly up here, literally not metaphorically – metaphorically it’s lovely and warm”.

There was certainly a warm response from the crowd with inevitable huge cheers for the likes of Perfect Skin, Are You Ready to be Heartbroken and a superb rendition of Forest Fire, but equally the newer tunes have clearly been taken to heart already with big reactions for The Idiot, Wolves, and frankly the whole show, which never dipped start to finish.

So as the face-painted ghosts and ghouls of Halloween trampled the rainy streets of Brighton, presumably someone else somewhere else got the trick, because we very definitely had the treat of a night of quality music and musings.