Finally from Nashville: Mark Lanegan growls gently

For years, I flailed any chance to see Mark Lanegan live, always falling short. New albums came and went – sometimes two or three a year – but the live show was an elusive prize. Dates didn’t line up to travel to any of his short U.S. tours, and the closest possibilities have been at festivals.

With my 12-year Nashville residency, about to end, Lanegan finally came to my doorstep, hitting the Mercy Lounge stage on Cinco de Mayo. What better way to spend an Sunday evening than with one of rock music’s most intriguing characters

For an opener, Lanegan brought along Australian country/folk artist Simon Bonney, who performed with his wife, singer/violinist Bronwyn Adams. The set was short and at times awkward, although Bonney’s songs had an earthy charm to them.

Lanegan jumped right into Death’s Head Tattoo, which cribs a little lyric from Wild Thing before journeying into fresh, darker territory. The stage lights cast Lanegan’s face in a deep green hue that felt entirely too appropriate for the music.

From there the set jumped through album after album, rarely playing two tracks in a row from the same record. The set was culled from 15 years of Mark Lanegan Band albums – Bubblegum, Blues Funeral, Phantom Radio and Gargoyle, with a teaser track from the upcoming Somebody’s Knocking.

That blend of albums allowed the set to focus on the high points of each record, along with an occasional deep cut. If you were picking songs for a sample, anyone would be hard-pressed to pick better (although I was really hoping to hear Old Swan from Gargoyle, but no dice).

The newest song, Stitch It Up, was three minutes of punky psychedelic loops built around Lanegan’s croon. I was instantly smitten at this lively tune and the directions it might foretell about the new record.

 A single Gutter Twins song jumped into the setlist, but nothing else from Lanegan’s myriad side projects and cavernous catalog, even with a new collaboration with multi-instrumentalist Duke Garwood barely a year old. That might be the only problem with seeing an artist as prolific as Lanegan – even a show of 23 songs and nearly 2 hours cannot touch everything. The Garwood songs will have to wait for when he and Lanegan tour together.

What songs Lanegan did chose formed a remarkably cohesive evening. Tracks from Bubblegum, especially Hit the City and Bombed, have aged well and stand up again newer songs. Since Blues Funeral, Lanegan has embraced more electronic influences, and those sounds fit alongside his long-established debts to blues, psych-rock and gospel.

The different flavors of the records don’t get lost live. The moves between Bleeding Muddy Water and Beehive is subtle and quick, which Lanegan and band accomplished through their entire show. Those dance-heavy and electronic tunes didn't disappoint, with the synthesizers balanced against the rock elements necessary for live performance. Ode to Sad Disco and Floor of the Ocean fit effortlessly on the Mercy stage. Only with Harborview Hospital does the vibe pick up a little.

The banter was light from Lanegan, who mostly offered wheezy thanks throughout the night along with a few nods to his band and calling Bonney one of his heroes. But that’s a minor quibble in a set that felt laser-focused from the first notes.

The band made little haste in moving onto the encore. With its clanging-metal percussion omitted, closer Methamphetamine Blues fit the rest of the music better than the original, which sounds too close to a Tom Waits arrangement.

Here the junkyard beat became more of a sludgy monolithic rock, the kind of song that Lanegan’s craggy voice has anchored for more than three decades. His tours might be short, but the show was worth the long wait.