Echo and the Bunnymen
The Warfield, San Francisco
June 6, 2024
Photos by Raven Divito
Before I go about this review, I feel like a little bit of background is required. I’ve loved Echo and the Bunnymen for at least the last fifteen years or so. Not only have I loved their classic albums like Crocodiles, Porcupine, and Ocean Rain, but I’ve also looked forward to the releases of their later albums like Meteorites and The Stars, The Oceans, And The Moon. For one reason or another I had always missed them when they’d come through, so I knew that I couldn’t miss their stop at The Warfield for their 2024 Songs To Learn & Sing tour, named after their seminal compilation album.
The band came onstage and began playing the opening song from Crocodiles, “Going Up.” Singer Ian McCulloch’s voice was sounding strong as the song went on, and over the next few numbers the energy level was kept relatively high, coming to a head with a performance of the searing “Rescue,” one of the band’s signature songs. Where things first began to sour was the band’s performance of “Villiers Terrace.” It’s one of my favorite songs on the debut album, and I was getting more and more into it as the song went on. So color me shocked when about three-quarters of the way through it the band decided to turn it into a medley with “Roadhouse Blues” by The Doors and “The Jean Genie” by David Bowie. Both great songs, but they didn’t blend together at all, and by the time that the band finished the song it had lost all of its momentum.
The first set ended with a performance of the single “Bring On The Dancing Horses,” another signature song by the band. During the chorus of the song Ian put his hands over the microphone and looked down as the audience sang it back at him, something that at the time struck me as him taking in the enormity of the song and its effect on the audience. We’ll get back to that later. Once the song ended the band went offstage for about twenty minutes. Unfortunately it felt like the air conditioning had been shut off in The Warfield. I looked around and everyone around me was either visibly sweating, fanning themselves off, or both. Someone behind me that couldn’t have been older than voting age seemingly gave up and left before the band came back on to play a couple of songs off of their album Heaven Up Here.
The next big song by the band that was performed was “Seven Seas,” and again Ian didn’t sing the chorus. Only this time it felt more like he was refusing to. It was followed by “Nothing Lasts Forever,” one of my favorite later-day Echo and the Bunnymen songs, which again was bastardized into a weird medley, this time with “Walk On The Wild Side” by Lou Reed. At least with the “Villiers Terrace” medley it felt like Ian knew the words of the other songs that were being interpolated, but for “Walk On The Wild Seed” he seemed to be hurriedly mumbling through the lyrics without actually knowing what they were.
The moment where things truly soured for me was during “The Killing Moon.” Hearing this song in the film Donnie Darko was what first introduced me to the band, and it’s always held a special place in my heart because of it. I can say whatever I want to about songs of theirs like “Rescue” or “The Cutter,” but “The Killing Moon” is Echo and the Bunnymen’s signature song. As the band played it, Ian again refused to sing the chorus, but I didn’t care. I was having a euphoric moment hearing my favorite song by one of my favorite bands. And then the whole thing was derailed by Ian making the band stop halfway through the second verse. From where I was standing (third row center) I couldn’t hear or see any reason why. He made the band restart the song, but the emotional weight of the song had been completely deflated. The moment was gone.
Eventually the band got to their encore. As they were playing “Lips Like Sugar” I told myself that I would start making my way towards the back during the next song to beat the crowd. And again, despite “Lips Like Sugar” being one of the band’s most popular songs, Ian was refusing to sing the chorus again. The entire thing was leaving a bad taste in my mouth. Once the song ended and the band began to play the intro of “Ocean Rain” I began to make my way towards the back of the crowd. I heard the first few lines of the song being sung by Ian, then a loud dropping sound, and I turned around to see Ian walking offstage. The rest of the band was standing there, looking at each other, seemingly unsure if he would come back. They all eventually set down their instruments and walked off. I was halfway through the lobby when I heard that the band had come back onstage to do the song, but it was too little too late, both for me and also the hordes of people that were exiting with me. I heard someone say that Ian walked off because someone was heckling him, and honestly, I don’t blame the heckler given how bad the performance had been up to that point.
I don’t like writing negative reviews. I’ve only written one before, and while part of me wants to hold onto that old saying that if you don’t have anything nice to say to not say anything at all, I also want to be honest with whoever is reading this. I’m not going to watch a trainwreck and then report that the train arrived safely at the station and everyone clapped. I know that I haven’t mentioned them much throughout this review, but every member of Echo and the Bunnymen whose name isn’t Ian McCulloch were bringing their A-game. They were tight, and bassist Stephen Brannan and drummer Simon Finley especially played their parts perfectly. But it felt like Ian McCulloch couldn’t care less about being there, much less about the members of the audience who had paid money to see them perform.
One last thought: don’t name your tour after a compilation album if you’re not going to play the songs from it. I was expecting to hear songs like “The Back Of Love,” “A Promise,” “Silver,” and “The Puppet.” Instead the band only played the songs from Songs To Learn & Sing that they play at every show anyways. It would be the equivalent of if Depeche Mode said they were going to do a Violator throwback tour and only played “Personal Jesus,” “Enjoy The Silence,” and “World In My Eyes.” Also don’t call your tour Songs To Learn & Sing if you’re not going to make the effort to sing the songs once you’re onstage.
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