Trivelig på Garage

Review of the UbuDoll concert on Thursday, 23.11.2000, at Garage (half full): a quiet, bittersweet, comic “cuddle hour”. Thanks to an exemption from Bergen's licensing rules, the concert began at 21.30 in front of a rapt, adult audience. Leven with acoustic guitar, worn shirt and tracksuit bottoms tucked into his socks, Thomas in a butcher's apron with accordion, both on stools. It opened with “Morbid Sky”, played out at length like “Paris Blues”; in between came stories from Leven's life and Thomas's tragicomic poetry (comparisons with Tom Waits, Robbie Robertson). Encores without leaving the stage: “Call Mother a Lonely Field” and Van Morrison's “Cyprus Avenue”.