Hawksley Workman

at the Kulturfabrik (Esch/Alzette) on January 24th, 2002

I guess you noticed that there haven’t been to many concert reviews on this website so far. The reason for this is that most concerts are basically good, but not necessarily memorable. Hawksley Workman was memorable, unique, special and wonderful, and that’s why I decided to sit down and write a review again.

I have been looking forward to this concert for weeks. Hawksley Workman is a one-in-a-million artists, somebody who knows how to play a simple tune and still catch your heart with it, a real magician of unforgettable melodies.

But enough about that. Let’s face the concert, which was on a Thursday, normally not a very good day for a concert, but about 300 people found their way to the KuFa anyway. Why so many people? I really don’t know, as Hawksley is not yet a big selling artist. Maybe there was just the right amount of publicity, or maybe people just expected to see something very special that night.

Anyway, before Hawksley began with his performance, people had to endure a good half hour of Tiger Fernandez. They are one of Luxembourg’s best bands, and since they started pumping up the noise factor and added a second vocalist, they are even better, more aggressive, etc. But really, they were out of place this evening. I liked it, and they got some nice reaction from the crowd, but having an opening act just for the sake of it... not the best idea in my opinion.

Hawksley Workman was not noise, he was melody, harmony and sweetness, combined in one quirky 26-years old Canadian. Hawksley was accompanied by his piano player Mr Lonely, and the two of them were a hell of a sight. Hawksley mostly played guitar, although he concentrated most of his energy on his singing, which was something I have never heard before. Even more powerful than on CD, Hawksley has an incredible voice that is located mostly in the higher registers, but his voice never falters, and was sending goosebumps all over my skin.

The first couple of songs were ok, ballads, and no one was prepared yet for the attack of humour to come. I don’t want to recall all the songs he played, but best of all was the part where he played Jealous Of Your Cigarette and Striptease For Me. During the latter song, Hawksley actually performed a real striptease to change his weird suit for an army uniform, and between the two sets of dresses, he was only wearing his underpants, which had the women in the crowd go raving mad. And now I wait for someone criticising us males for catcalling when a woman is getting naked.

Besides the music, it was Hawksley’s announcements that added spice to the performance. Everything was improvised, and there was a certain amount of craziness in his Canadian brain going on. Not everything he said made sense, but everything was funny as hell. In a time where one artist tries to be harder than the other, it’s so refreshing to have someone like Hawksley Workman who revels in his nerdiness and who doesn’t care about being cool.

Hawksley and Mr Lonely (who also played some very fine piano) stayed on stage for 90 minutes, and mostly everyone was satisfied by what they heard. It was the first gig of Hawksley’s European tour, a very fine one too, and the KuFa can be proud of having brought someone so original to Luxembourg.