Magnetic Fields

Knowing you're about to see, for the very first time, a live show by a band you've followed for ages is an even bigger spur than usual to start asking questions that will only be answered once the concert begins. What kind of sound will the band go for live, out of the many they've offered us over the course of their career? Will the setlist be balanced across their different eras, or will there be one particular album they draw from the most? Will Stephin Merritt act like a despotic leader, treating the other musicians as mere backing players? Will they just play, or will they also make some effort to connect with the audience? Thoughts like these keep bouncing around in my head as I make my way to the Passionkirsche, a venue on the edge of Kreuzberg, one of Berlin's best-known districts. And also: what exactly is this Passionkirsche - is it really a church, or just a name?

The last question is obviously the one with the most immediate answer. It really is a church, an Evangelical one to be precise, complete with pews to sit on just as you would during Mass, and room for the audience up in a gallery too; there's no shortage of a bar selling soft drinks and even bottles of beer. There are no ostentatious decorations or lavish trimmings, but the sacred character of the place as a whole is undeniable, and it seems to clash - not so much with the musical style of the Magnetic Fields, but rather with the spirit that has always defined this project's various guises. Perhaps that's exactly why Merritt immediately launches into little nonsensical asides about the venue he and his band are about to play in, and more besides. "Since this is the third time I've played in this church, this time I'm going to play you songs none of you have ever heard - this set is made up entirely of new, unreleased material." Of course he's joking, and a string of equally ironic jabs with Claudia Gonson follows. "I've been told I'm not allowed up on the pulpit... again. Apparently it's considered disrespectful. Sure, when Rufus Wainwright played here he came out completely naked, but that wasn't a problem at all..." These and plenty of other little quips from Merritt and his trusty squires, the aforementioned Claudia Gonson and Shirley Simms, are exactly what creates that sense of lightness - not just musical, but of mindset - that has always accompanied Magnetic Fields' music. Pop is also meant to entertain, with taste, with refinement and without shallowness, sure, but the desire to avoid being banal can't take precedence over the need to give the listener some positive vibrations. This has always been the message the Magnetic Fields have sent between the lines of their songs, and the musicians' attitude on stage can only reflect that underlying conviction.

The church, with its silence, is nonetheless perfect for the instrumentation the quintet lines up with. From left to right looking at the stage: Shirley Simms on piano, Claudia Gonson on acoustic guitar, John Woo on the other acoustic guitar, Sam Davol on cello, and Stephin Merritt on synth, used very sparingly. It's a setup that closely recalls much of "69 Love Songs", the sound that made the Magnetic Fields a talking point the world over, far more than the synth-oriented sound of the Nineties, revisited in a different form on their latest album, or the gentle electric sprawl à la Jesus & Mary Chain on the gem "Distortion". You can have the most highly developed critical conscience in the world, but being in a place like this, listening live to such an important band presenting itself in the way it's most immediately identified with, can't help but move you. Who cares if there's nothing unpredictable about it - and besides, that's not entirely true anyway, since the setlist also includes songs that sound completely different from their studio versions. Those who love analysis above all else, who leave little room for feelings, get their fill hearing tracks like "Drive On, Driver", "Swinging London" and the three songs from the latest album in a sonic guise far removed from how those songs are normally known. Then, when the songs sound just as they've been heard dozens of times over the years, having dreamed of one day being present at a live performance of them, the shivers, the tremors, the sighs inevitably take over.

That's also because the five of them do it all by pairing a sharp interpretive sensibility with an uncommon naturalness. The emblem of the disarming spontaneity with which this live show touches every innermost chord of everyone present is Shirley Simms, who, when she needs to use just one hand, uses the other to fix her hair - all while singing, of course - and every gesture has an almost angelic grace, the same grace found in her vocal tone and in her touch on the black and white keys. Each musician plays a fundamental role in achieving a sonic beauty that's as simple as it is dazzling, and the blend is simply perfect. And the fact that the Magnetic Fields are truly a band is also shown by how Merritt often has Gonson and Simms introduce songs - songs he wrote, let's remember, but whose every hidden meaning the two women seem to know perfectly well. Naturally, both of them have also fully absorbed Merritt's particular sense of humour, and he is anything but a leader on stage - he presents himself as one fifth of the band, nothing more and nothing less.

You can read the setlist for yourselves on the left-hand side of this page. There's little to comment on: every Magnetic Fields fan has a special relationship with "69 Love Songs", because, even if it wasn't the record through which they discovered the band, it's almost certainly the one they love most. It's therefore obvious that having so many songs drawn from that work is extremely welcome, and here too Merritt and his crew show that the thing they value most is the audience's enjoyment. And there was plenty of enjoyment. An awful lot of it.

Photo by Stefano Formiconi

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