Sparks @ The Queen's Hall, Edinburgh, 20 Sep

Tonight Sparks' new material segues perfectly into the old providing a complete set and performance from a band, still, performing at the absolute best level

Live Review by James Hampson | 26 Sep 2017

It was always going to be the case that as the great bands of the past aged, many would do so ungracefully. Market forces being what they are, if people are willing to pay to see The Rolling Stones or The Who (“Hope I die before I become Pete Townshend,” as Kurt Cobain prophetically said), then those poor old saps are always going to turn out no matter how ridiculous they look.

Are Sparks in this camp? Of course, one of the main points of Sparks has always been to be ridiculous. They have not grown ridiculous with the passing years, they have deliberately set out to be so from the start. But could they maintain this sense of fun and unashamed whimsicality which has always defined them? The Mael brothers are each a couple of years either side of seventy.

There was no need for concern. A gleeful Russell comes out and thanks us for coming in that sunny, light Californian voice that remains unaltered, with falsetto intact from the opening What The Hell is it This Time? It’s testament to Sparks’ continuing creativity and relevance that they can start a set with a new single and still get the crowd going. Then it’s into the frenetic Propaganda/At Home At Work At Play before everyone loses it to the swirling throb of Good Morning, then there’s an arm-waving singalong for When Do I Get to Sing 'My Way'. Five songs into the set, Sparks have played songs from all over their five-decade lifespan, and every one has swung the audience around to their will. We are in the presence of pros.

How can anyone not enjoy the absurd thrill of singing along with a 68-year-old man doing falsetto, and him beating every one of us? Russell Mael remains the pitch-perfect parody of a popstar, glam rocker and opera singer all at once, while Ron of course performs his solemn duty of statically anchoring his brother’s freewheeling glee. When Ron comes out to dance during the penultimate banger of the night, the cast-iron classic The Number One Song in Heaven, the audience love it and it's really the only mawkish and tacky part of the night.

It’s fair to say that the new Sparks album Hippopotamus is a bit of a return to their old ways with guitar-centric songwriting, jokey song titles and so on. But it’s really worth taking a moment to value what they offer. It's difficult to think of any other band that works as hard to still be relevant, and worth listening to, after decades of output as Sparks. The set doesn’t feel like it relies on the old stuff to space out thin new material; the new tracks segue perfectly into the old. This is a complete set and performance from a band still performing at their absolute best.

http://allsparks.com/