Concert reviews · Bergensavisen

Under the headline “Lyrisk kjeller!” (“Lyrical cellar!”) Frank Johnsen reviews a Leven concert at the Garage club in Bergen. An evening with the “hefty Scot” at one of his favourite clubs was bound to be wonderful, and Leven did not disappoint this time either, firing off tragicomic stories from his stool to the audience’s wild delight. With him were The Celtic Soulmen, Michael Cosgrave on keyboards and Steafan Hannigan on percussion and Uilleann pipes, who gave Leven the airy sound that characterises the records. Hannigan’s “synchronised swimming” between bodhrán, djembe and pipes was nothing short of impressive.

Cosgrave and Hannigan are also prominent on Leven’s latest album, Night Lilies, so much of the programme came from that “fabulous” record, which the critic does not hold against him; best-of concerts, he says, can wait for the compilation. Leven tells stories, whether about golf on the moon, Van Morrison’s stage paranoia or a car sale with a fatal outcome, and beneath this “purgatory” there is always a humorous bottom; few artists deliver the message as clearly as the Scottish veteran. But it is also about music: Leven is a creative guitarist, and his percussive play on the guitar body while he works the strings is a joy to watch.

The great artistic moment came when Hannigan played a personal ode to his father on the pipes, over a beautiful synth carpet, and the piece gradually melted into “Burning The Box Of Beautiful Things”: “the world stood still for a moment”. The start of the article is partly cut off in the newspaper scan.