Falling Mirror: ‘Johnny’s Back…’ at the Barnyard Theatre

Sunday
28 April 2013

For one night only, 80s legends Falling Mirror (the original members and some new ones too) performed a packed show at Willowbridge’s Barnyard Theatre. The night was especially significant given the fact that the band hardly ever performed live during their 30+ years of making music.

Despite having two #1s in the 80s (Neutron Bop and the mega-hit Johnny Calls the Chemist), Falling Mirror are a bit of an obscure band, with an alternative style that both kept them from major success and created a cult following of devoted fans.

It seems like there’s a renewed interest in the band that has been growing even before the release of their first album in years, 2010’s Special Agent Duck; my dad made the comment that not everyone gets the band, but those who do tend to become pretty obsessed with them and want to do everything possible to support them.

This certainly seems to be true; up until recently, vocalist and lyricist Nielen Marais was living under a tree (literally). This, added to the knowlege that they were never really a live band and only ever played a handful of gigs, makes the big show they put on last Sunday a feat that verges on the miraculous. One Small Seed did great in-depth piece about the band, their comeback and the documentary about them that’s currently in the works, check it out over here.

The new line-up consists of the founding members Nielen Marais, Allan Faull (guitar, backing vocals) and Pat Humphreys (drums and designer for the band’s album covers, posters and recent line of super cool T-shirts) as well as Harvey Cohen (bass), George den Das (Keyboards) and Sharon Clifton (acoustic guitar & vocals).

Nielen’s Dylanesque vocals were as compelling as ever, and his physical performance was hypnotic and compelling. Allan’s truly an incredible guitar player. I liked the addition of Sharon’s guitar and backing vocals but wasn’t a fan of her lead vocals.

The band performed a nice mix of tracks, including crowd hits (Johnny, Neutron Bop, Time is a Thief), some of my personal favourites (Revolver Wolf, Highway Blues), a fantastic rendition of Like a Rolling Stone and the never-before-heard brand new song Under a tree (which they played twice…I’m not sure why, but it’s truly a stunning song so I don’t think anyone minded). They even (rather reluctantly) responded to the crowd’s pleas for an encore with a second performance of The Storming of the Loft.