Once again, Mainy is stepping into the breach with a review of Ezra Furman live in Glasgow, Furman’s latest album, Twelve Nudes, has quickly cemented itself as one of my favourites of the year.
All words by Alex “Mainy” Main
Sheer Force of Talent
Artists such as Ezra Furman don’t come around often. They are the rare breed who become iconic through the sheer force of their talent. Easily referenced genre tags fail to stick as they transcend beyond the terms that would ultimately box them in.
Is it punk? Is it rocknroll? Is it queercore? Is it pop? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. All of the above and so much more.
He possesses the heart of a beat poet for our times. One who ferociously howls a primal scream into the expansive void of idiocracy. Like Dylan he’s got something to say and it’s difficult to ignore him. Especially when the music and words are given room to breath as part of a live performance.
Short Sharp Shock
His slight frame, his androgyny, and his soft-spoken voice all fade into the background when he unleashes something from deep within that serves as a short sharp shock to those who haven’t been paying attention to the world around them.
It’s semi irrelevant if it’s a personal or a broader social tale he is telling us themes overlap and both are delivered with the same unapologetic intensity. There are obvious ghosts being channeled through him that lend themselves to giving a sense of familiarity to those who have immersed themselves in music and the arts. It’s difficult not to acknowledge them.
The shadow of the aforementioned Bob Dylan is there, but Lou Reed looms large too, as does Bowie and a whole host of people who left a global cultural mark by relentlessly pushing at preconceived boundaries that others try to straightjacket us with.
It doesn’t take a great leap of the imagination to conjure up Ezra as a focal point of a Warhol party, or to think of him as having fallen to earth to dance with Nicolas Roeg. There’s something otherworldly, but also earthy to him. His DNA has a strand of the messianic tangled around that of artistic genius.
Domination
It may well be the Queen Margaret Union stage of Glasgow that he is dominating today, but if there’s any justice his future will feature stadiums. Just as so many of us started to think that the passing of Bowie heralded the end of a particular artistic journey we have Ezra picking up the torch and running screaming into the unknown with it.
Just in time too.
His live shows provide plenty of evidence that there are still boundaries that need pushed back on and we always need that. We need people to boldly wear their hearts on their sleeves and pose questions that serve as a catalyst for change. And now here we have one of those people stepping up, and unless they burn him at the stake with flames of moral outrage licking at his feet then the times will be a changing.
He is upholding his end of the deal. All we have to do to uphold ours is to listen.