Review: Greg Phillips. Photos: David Harris
It had been eight long years since PJ Harvey had toured Australia and even longer since she’d been on my own musical radar. I last recall seeing PJ standing side stage watching At The Drive In at the 2001 Melbourne leg of the Big Day Out. A photo of that occurrence, taken by photographer Marty Williams I gifted to Omar Rodriguez Lopez many years later, who accepted the pic with genuine gratitude. It was a significant time for his band. Back then Polly Jean Harvey was a global alt-rock superstar, promoting material from her album Stories from The City, Stories from the Sea. What I’d failed to experience in the ensuing years has been the development of PJ into a genre-defying, multi-instrumental, composer, poet and all-encompassing artist. I’d watched and enjoyed two seasons of Bad Sisters the fabulous Irish TV series before realising that PJ Harvey and collaborator Tim Phillips had composed the soundtrack. It wasn’t until PJ’s current record ‘I Inside the Old Year Dying’ was nominated for a 2024 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music album that I began to dig deeper and bring myself up to speed on her fascinating music career.
Joining a packed house at Melbourne’s plush Plenary Theatre, I got to experience PJ’s current work of art I Inside the Old Year Dying. Perth and Adelaide (Womadelaide) audiences and media had already fawned over the production, so I was keen to see how this album would play out live.
Prior to PJ’s appearance Dirty Three member Mick Turner laid his decadently dark atmospheric, mesmerising guitar tones upon us and was well received.
Before Harvey’s arrival to stage, the setting was visually sparse but aurally interesting, with the sounds of the forest wafting gently through the PA system. The album I Inside the Old Year Dying is based on Harvey’s 202 poem ‘Orlam’ and shepherds the listener into a fantasy world of the Dorset woodlands, where Polly Jean grew up.
The band consisting of John Parish, James Johnston, Jean-Marc Butty and Giovanni Ferrario took to the stage with PJ following soon after. Beginning with Prayer at the Gate, the opening track of the album, the dramatic lighting and backing visuals instantly created an ominous, other-worldly atmosphere. In creating this production, Harvey employed the services of Theatre Director Ian Rickson, Set Designer Rae Smith, Lighting Designers Paule Constable and Louisa Smurthwaite, and Fashion Designer Todd Lynn and the result of their collaboration is stunning.
In the recording of the album, PJ was encouraged to sing outside of her usual range, vocalising in a higher register with a folkier accent. Screeches punctuating the second song Autumn Term conjure the energy of an anglo-saxon paganism ritual. Jean-Marc Butty’s subtle use of pounding mallets adds to the authenticity of the sound. While the band create their dark ’forestly’ soundtrack, draped in a long white coat featuring a pattern of tree branches, PJ sways and bounds around the stage in Kate Bush Wuthering Heights style, gesturing and reaching out into the blackness of the audience.
By the time A Noiselss Noise, the final track of the album washes over us, we’re left spellbound. PJ leaves the stage amid birdsong as the band set up front of stage to deliver The Colour of the Earth, a folk tribute to the ANZACs from her Let England Shake album.
Returning to the stage and sticking with that album, PJ offers us a vibrant version of The Glorious Land, then donning an autoharp, launches into The Words That Maketh Murder. The audience really kick into gear however at the sounds of PJ’s Jazzmaster feeding back and pouncing into the classic rocker 50ft Queenie. Black Hearted Love, a co-write with band member John Parish is intoxicating. A sombre rendition of The Garden from her 1998 album Is This Desire? shows we’re experiencing the full gamut of PJ Harvey’s extensive catalogue.
Strapping on a Yamaha acoustic guitar and bathed in a spotlight, accentuated by the surrounding smoke, she drops a stark but beautiful The Desperate Kingdom of Love upon us. Then after rocking out on Man-size and Dress, PJ finally walks to the microphone to acknowledge the audience and thank us for our support.
She leaves us with impressive versions of Down by the Water and To Bring You My Love but the crowd is going nowhere, pleading for an encore. It’s not long before PJ and band re-emerge and ease into the gorgeous C’mon Billy. Returning to an Olde English folk vibe, White Chalk ends the evening on a high. The staging tonight was immaculate, the sound coming off the stage was perfect and we were presented with the entire range of PJ Harvey’s immense artistic talents.
Setlist
Prayer at the Gate
Autumn Term
Lwonesome Tonight
Seem an I
The Nether-Edge
I Inside the Old Year Dying
All Souls
A Child’s Question, August
I Inside the Old I Dying
August
A Child’s Question, July
A Noiseless Noise
The Colour of the Earth
The Glorious Land
The Words That Maketh Murder
50ft Queenie
Black Hearted Love
The Garden
The Desperate Kingdom of Love
Man-Size
Dress
Down by the Water
To Bring You My Love
Encore:
C’mon Billy
White Chalk
