Jon Hopkins
– Bridgewater Hall, Manchester –
Don’t mention it
Don’t mention it
Don’t mention it
Don’t mention it
Don’t mention it
There are empty seats due to the coronavirus. There, I’ve addressed it. Some people don’t feel comfortable enough to come to a concert hall full of people who potentially have a world wide pandemic virus, and that’s fair enough. It’s a very odd time at the moment, and people aren’t really sure what they should and should not be doing, but I, and hundreds of others here tonight, have made the decision to come out to see what sounds like a very intriguing Jon Hopkins show. Let’s face it, it could be the last event that we get to attend for a little while, with many bands (rightly) already cancelling their tours for the next few months, so fuck it, I’ve got the red wine on the go and I’m going to have a last hurrah.
I’ve never been to the Bridgewater Hall before, and I didn’t imagine my first time would be something like this. The last time I saw Jon Hopkins was in Gorilla in support of his formidable 2013 album Immunity; it was the height of summer and there was literally sweat pouring down the walls as everyone had a right old rave up to Hopkin’s brand of ‘Guardian techno’. There is, for the record, nothing wrong with Guardian Techno, it’s the polite end of the dance spectrum, but that doesn’t mean it can’t absolutely bang (we’re not talking Blawan or Karenn or Paula Temple, but still), and that night Hopkins banged hard. Tonight’s show is different though, billed as part of his ‘Polarity’ tour, which he described as bringing together “the two disparate elements of harsh and fragile in my music. By going between the two, we’ll hopefully create some profound moments of stillness”, and it’s immediately obvious that this isn’t going to a standard ‘dance’ show. For starters, there’s the venue, usually used to hosting classical events rather than electronic music (and what a handsome venue it is – the hall is stunning), and then there’s the presence of a Steinway grand piano to the left of the stage.
It’s the piano that Hopkins attends to first, beautifully back lit by the lights, casting him into shadows as he plays ‘Scene Suspended’, the gorgeous stand-alone song he released earlier this year. Joined then by a guitarist and two string players, we’re very much in the realms of chin stroking classical territory and it’s eye wateringly pretty, Hopkins a wonderful pianist playing the first three tracks with a tender beauty that stuns the crowd into pin drop silence. Then it switches right up, as Hopkins moves to the more traditional laptop DJ set up in the middle of the stage and drops ‘Emerald Rush’ which at first confuses the crowd as we don’t really know what to do – politely sit in our seats and nod along, or just fuck it and get up and dance; the latter wins out after a few intrepid pioneers get up and throw some shapes, and before long the whole place is a classical music rave hall. He continues to switch between the two sides for the rest of the evening, and the crowd follow suit – sit down for the piano, up and go wild for the beats. There’s a real sense of release when the beat drops in, everyone collectively losing their shit in an end of the world party.
Luckily for me, he plays two of my favourite piano based tracks, ‘Abandon Window’, a study in space and beauty, and surprisingly ‘First Watch’ from his King Creosote collaboration album Diamond Mine, and they both move me to tears. They’re quickly dried up though when he destroys the venue with a ferocious ‘Open Eye Signal’, his most thrilling track that gets a massive response from everyone. He finishes back at the piano for the exquisite ‘Recovery’, another twinkling, captivating song based around a simple set of repeated notes that lull me into a warm cocoon of a place – I don’t want to leave. But alas, we must, and the crowd are once again on their feet to give Hopkins a deserved standing ovation for a concert that shouldn’t really have worked, but is a complete triumph. Back to the real world, the world that feels like it’s collapsing in on itself. If this is the last thing I see for a few months, then I’ve gone on hiatus on a high.
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