This town needs an education. The notion that there were empty seats last night at Radio City Music Hall reaches Sarah Palin answering questions about what she reads levels of ridiculousness. Echo & The Bunnymen were in town performing their classic album Ocean Rain in its entirety with an orchestra, one of only three such scheduled concerts worldwide (the other two happening in London and the band’s hometown of Liverpool). Ocean Rain! With accompanying orchestra! Surely the show would’ve sold out if the band hadn’t muddled their canon with a series of post-Ocean Rain missteps and less-than-spectacular live appearances. Hell, I’ve skipped an Echo show or two myself on the basis of not wanting to hear or see an aging band limp through any of their songs recorded outside of the ’80s. And this is one of my favorite bands of that great decade. However, the concert last night promised at least one full set of magnificent songwriting in full-album glory. A trip back to 1984 and a band in complete command of their sound and vision. Could the Bunnymen still pull it off? I was cautiously excited to find out…

Echo & The Bunnymen entered the great hall at full-bore, opting to open the show with perhaps their last great song, 1987’s “Lips Like Sugar”, rather than play the full-album Ocean Rain set to begin. Immediately it was obvious they had complete control of their trademark sound: Ian McCulloch’s voice soared, Will Sergeant’s guitar bit and jangled. From my seat in the front of the first balcony the sound (literally) could not have been any better. It was the best sound I’ve heard yet in my many visits to Radio City and the first notes of their second song “Rescue” (quite literally their second song, or second single at least) sent a wave of goosebumps shooting up my arms. By “Bring on the Dancing Horses” their strategy was already paying off. The anticipation! To hear this current lineup play Ocean Rain in full, with an orchestra, in this room, the way they were sounding… egads! It’s all I could think about as they sailed through a new song (”Think I Need It Too”) and a few more vintage burners before wandering into -dangerous- cover song territory. The band has always displayed an overt fondness for The Doors, and the inclusion of their version of “People Are Strange” (which featured prominently in the film The Lost Boys) wasn’t much of a surprise. But the devolution of the already weak “Nothing Lasts Forever” into a medley of cover version snippets bordered on ‘washed up Vegas performance’ and was certainly the low point of the evening. Thankfully we had the main course to look forward to.

After a brief intermission, the band (led by Ian McCulloch in trademark trench coat and sunglasses) returned to the stage with orchestra in tow. We knew what was next, but just in case McCulloch reminded us in very plain language - “This is… Ocean Rain…” - and thus began the real concert.

Words can not do justice in describing how amazing the Ocean Rain set was. Other than some mumbly between song banter from McCulloch about the ineptitude of the Dutch lighting guy, it was perfection incarnate. The movie screens which flank the stage lit up with vintage pictures of Echo & the Bunnymen, the stage itself lit up with vintage sounds. The longing, the listless melancholia, and the darkness which Echo have always embodied, bled through in thick strokes reaching a climactic peak during the album’s sixth track, the theme song of an entire generation, “The Killing Moon”. It’s from this point forward that Ocean Rain magically moves into stupid-good territory, the final four songs of the album sometimes considered one of the great album sides ever. Shrouded in shadows, the music stood on its own and couldn’t have sounded any better. It was, for lack of words, stupid-good. As a result, the second half of the show last night will likely stand out as one of the great concert-going experiences of my life. Did Echo & the Bunnymen pull it off? Damn straight. Last night they made Radio City their king-kingdom kingdom kingdom…

Check out MP3s of the first six songs from the performance of Ocean Rain below (apologies for the audio quality), more pictures from the show are up at BrooklynVegan.

Setlist
“Lips Like Sugar”
“Rescue”
“Bring on the Dancing Horses”
“Think I Need It Too”
“The Disease”
“All That Jazz”
“The Back Of Love”
“All My Colours”
“People Are Strange” (Doors cover)
“Nothing Lasts Forever”
“Walk on the Wild Side” (partial Lou Reed cover)
“In the Midnight Hour” (partial Wilson Pickett cover)
“The Cutter”
–Intermission followed by Ocean Rain–
“Silver” (MP3)
“Nocturnal Me” (MP3)
“Crystal Days” (MP3)
“The Yo Yo Man” (MP3)
“Thorn of Crowns” (MP3)
“The Killing Moon” (MP3)
“Seven Seas”
“My Kingdom”
“Ocean Rain”

See Echo & The Bunnymen (playing Ocean Rain one more time) live:
27 Nov - Liverpool Echo Arena, Liverpool, UK

Visit Echo & The Bunnymen on MySpace.