Patrick Wolf live @ Botanique (Rotunda)

Three stars for revelation Rowdy Superst*r and one for Patrick Wolf, who despite more than decent execution, stayed far below the standards we have come to expect from him. That's the conclusion of a fairly disappointing performance by one of music's brightest stars.

Rowdy Superst*r

Warming up for Patrick Wolf was electro-rapper Rowdy Superst*r. In all honesty, I had never heard of him nor did I not have high expectations. I was wrong to be sceptic. Rowdy Superst*r turned out to be somewhat of a revelation. Think a flamboyant mix of Spank Rock, Dizzee Rascal and Nicki Minaj and put the sum of those pople in gold sequined trainers. Flanked by two amazing female dancers he brought a show bursting with energy and eccentricity. Rowdy is a stylist - check out Cocknbullkid's video for 'Hold On To Your Misery' - and that showed during his show. It didn't take more than a couple of construction lights, two silver bazooka-like objects and a whole lot of sparkle to lift his performance up from the otherwise pretty depressing vibe hanging over the Rotunde. Not even technical difficulty could get in the way  of things - as both Rowdy and his dancers showed impeccable improvisation skills. And to top it all off, the songs were not bad at all. Ladies and gentlemen, a st*r is born.

Patrick Wolf

The last time I saw Patrick Wolf was in the fall of 2009. It was at the end of his European tour for The Bachelor and a couple of months after his Pukkelpop passage (my first PW live experience). It had been an exhausting tour, his blonde extensions looked a mess, but it didn't withold him from giving his all for the final performance on the continent. The one thing I remembered most though from that show was Wolf's genuine sadness when he couldn't play a second round of encores because he and his band had to catch the ferry back to the UK. It was epitomizing for the man's unstoppable passion, which together with his talents as a singer-songwriter and instrumentalist, make him one of the few artists that truly stand out.

At his return on Friday Wolf had reason to be joyful. His new album Lupercalia is set to drop in May and in addition to that the singer got engaged to his long-term boyfriend. Yet on stage, Patrick Wolf - dressed in a burgundy suit - seemed like a shadow of the exuberant optimist I saw over a year ago. For some reason Wolf didn't to be having the best time and evidently that had its toll on the show. The same went for his band, which looked equally distant throughout. The gitarist and keyboardplayer did their best to establish some sort of connection, but the two female instrumentalists, in charge of additional violin, piano and the necessary horn sections failed to produce a single smile and seemed to waver between being overly focussed and total disconnect.

Despite a constant quality and flawless execution, the performance – apart from having no lows - had no real highs either. The songs were sung the way they should have been, all instruments were played live, but as a whole the performance lacked in persuasiveness. Apart from an occasional 'Thank you' and two rehearsed addressals - he inserted the passages 'belgian boys' and 'Brussels' into two songs -  Wolf seemed absent and somewhat disconnected. He seemed to rush through his set, without ever truly throwing his full weight in the balance. The few up-tempo songs lacked their usual joyful exuberance while the slow songs more often than not sounded dragging, rather than emotional. The show ended pretty abruptly and without any real climax. After that Wolf returned for one – seemingly cumbersome – encore, preluded by a messy sample of ‘Hard Times’ and that was it. Afterwards the stage lights started flickering again in a final attempt to get the crowd rowed up, but it seemed that the artist had already left the building. 

At that point you can’t help feeling a little disappointed. Maybe it was the venue. With its capacity to hold some 400 people, the Rotunda is far too small to host Patrick Wolf in all his grandeur. An option would have been to go for an intimate session, preferably acoustic, but even then it is hard to grasp why this event was scheduled for the Botanique’s smallest room. A man of his stature deserves better. And maybe he just had an off-day. One consolation though: the new songs sounded interesting, giving a hopeful impression of the upcoming album. So let’s just keep it at a one-off mishit and add that even when he stays well under his own full potential, Patrick Wolf still sticks out above average purely based on talent.