GOING to a gig in a theatre is definitely a weird experience. There’s the awkwardness of the seating arrangement to contend with, alongside the feeling that you can’t quite let loose in the same way you might be able to at any other venue.
Plus, being able to get ice cream during the “interval” (in this case, the 20 minutes between the support and main acts) feels all kinds of illegal.
Sandwiched in between performances of various musicals and stand-up comedy shows, Declan McKenna concluded his What Happened to the Beach? tour at the Edinburgh Playhouse on Monday, as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.
It’s much more typical to see McKenna perform in a crowded, muddy field than in a 95-year-old decadent theatre donned with singing cherub statues. It's a bit of a tone shift from his performance at Boardmasters just two days earlier, or playing at Glasgow’s TRNSMT in July.
But the indie singer-songwriter puts the audience at ease from the minute he walks onstage, acknowledging the oddness of the situation as he dons binoculars originally intended for theatregoers to get a better view of the stage, remarking: “It’s a good job you have seats, Edinburgh is one hilly f***ing city”.
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There was a kind of sadness to the opening of the show, as McKenna said it marked “the end of an era” for his latest album, released back in February.
He has toured the album with over 50 shows worldwide, including at the O2 Academy Glasgow in March.
Concluding in Edinburgh, he showcased his most recent sound with tracks such as Sympathy, Nothing Works, Mezzanine and The Phantom Buzz (Kick In).
Going into the gig, I wasn’t too sure how this would go down with the audience – his hardcore fan base is particularly loyal to his older material, with Brazil and British Bombs forming staple crowd-pleasers at each show.
To my surprise, everyone around me knew the words to every single song. The whole evening felt like one giant, euphoric dance party – all theatre etiquette had been thrown out by the end of the first song.
This was true even for McKenna. Whilst he maintained some level of decorum by occasionally looking at the audience through his pair of theatre binoculars, by the end of the gig he was standing on top of a seat in the stalls screaming along with the crowd.
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Yet the real highlight of the show was when McKenna took to the stage alone during the encore, debuting his cover of Abba’s Slipping Through My Fingers to a live audience.
It’s a song which has featured heavily on his social media – after posting a cover on TikTok which went viral last year – but to see him perform it live for the first time was truly special.
It was the perfect way to mark the end of an era – by turning the page and offering something new. Whilst somewhat haunting and melancholy, it also offered a hopeful glance at what the future might have in store for McKenna.
Although the setlist and the venue shouldn’t go together on paper, it really worked.
The album might have taken its final bow, but whatever comes next for McKenna is sure to be just as exciting.
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