Morcheeba

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/morcheebamar8.jpg" alt="Morcheeba : Live" />Morcheeba was in full celebration of their last stop on the North American tour in San Diego. ...
Morcheeba : Live

Morcheeba

Cool blue lighting bathed the stage at San Diego’s House of Blues on Tuesday, March 8th, as sultry guitar tones initiate "The Sea" from Morcheeba’s 1998 debut Big Calm.  Opening with what is arguably their most recognized song, the group set the bar high for the evening.  Vocalist Skye Edwards was certainly the limit, resplendent in a red, boa-toga dress, and her head crowned with Afro puffs.  The gyrations and serpentine arm movements with which she beguiled the audience are just further adornment to her powerful yet soothing voice.  During the chorus, Skye asked, "Why aren’t you singing?"  Immediately, the packed venue swelled with voices.  The audience transformed from spectators into participants.

Ross Godfrey"It’s Fat Tuesday, so I’m told," Skye remarked in her endearing South London accent.  "Are you ready to dance?"  The mood was high as the five-man band backing the vocalist accelerated the pace on the dub drenched, "Friction".  Offstage bodies bounced and swayed.

Ross Godfrey, the group’s guitarist and hash brownie eater, announced, "When I was a boy, I thought this was about a locksmith."  "Did you really?" Skye questioned.  "Yeah, smuggling a couple of keys…" and the group launched into Arlo Guthrie’s (QRO photos) 1968 ode to drug smuggling, "Coming Into Los Angeles".  WTF?  But it worked, as did all of the group’s material that night, which included "Slow Down", "Blindfold", "Crimson" (from their latest, Blood Like Lemonade) and some tasty slide guitar on "Part of the Process".  The blessed-out faces in the crowd confirmed the band’s choices and musicality.  The sound mix was perfect, the bar chatter minimal.

The chill out crowd was rendered rabid when roaring to request an encore.  As the group returned, Mardi Gras beads were hurled on stage.  Skye wrapped a strand around her neck asking, "Aren’t you supposed to see my boobs?"  By now Ross had finished his second brownie and the group was in full celebration of their last stop on the North American tour.  Still laughing about boobs, the group false-started on the mellow "Over and Over".  They concluded the evening with the soul-inspired uplift of "Rome Wasn’t Built in a Day", but not before Skye took a piggyback ride on a roadie who was wearing a horse head mask.  As Morcheeba exited stage left, Ross left his Fender Stratocaster to feedback like a mellow Motörhead (QRO photos).  Nothing was left wanting.

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