I love how the Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival changes the city energy. On the first night we gathered in the Marquee at Belfast’s Custom House Square to hear John Grant. He sang beautifully, he had poise and his songs were awesomely twisted. The more attractive reaches of ‘Queen Of Denmark’ were well received, but John was also given much leeway to express the savage parts of his new record, ‘Pale Green Ghosts’.
This created rich tension, with the singer flipping from ballad to electro-charge, from the sublime to the flaming put-down. From the latter camp we had ‘It Doesn't Matter To Him’, a forensic depiction of the credible artist, his gathering acclaim and the utter dereliction that he suffered from the ex lover. It was some kind of a relief to hear ‘I Wanna Go To Marz’, a escape into senses and sensations. And so we hairpinned across a stunning performance that found Belfast to be sweet-minded, tolerant and empathetic to John and his big gay heart. Would that the entire city might radiate more of this, more of the time.
