Live Review: James Vincent McMorrow

Sydney fans of James Vincent McMorrow were treated to a double-act on Thursday night at the Factory Theatre with two back-to-back sets from the Irish singer. The first half of the night showcased McMorrow's latest album True Care in its entirety and then McMorrow was back for more with a second set of fan favourites pulled from his three previous albums.

There was no lack of ambition in the extra-lengthy show from McMorrow and his haunting falsetto vocals for the large part lived up on the night. However, ultimately the show suffered from its length and highlighted that sometimes what you omit from a live performance is just as important as what you keep in.

December 2914 kicked off the night as the opener from True Care, a strong track which played on the known strength of McMorrow's vocals while successfully showcasing the shift towards a bolder, more electronically influenced sound that is present throughout the new album. Constellations started out as a slow, sultry track and finished with a cheesy, '70s inspired beats. A few songs later Bears had been constructed around a simple, repetitious percussion and was completely void of the rhythmic synths used in previous tracks. Pink Salt Lake was the standout from the album, the mysterious instrumental intro successfully building up into an urgent release of sound created the perfect tension to complement McMorrow's lyrics about insecurity and doubt.

McMorrow is very proud of True Care and during the show it was evident that he had a real passion for performing the album in its entirety. However, as intricate and interesting as some of the songs are, the album wasn't as satisfying to hear in full compared to McMorrow's other earlier albums. There wasn't an emotional intensity to the high points in the performance to justify the lulls throughout the set.

Quantity wasn't an issue at this concert, with an astounding 33 songs played over the two sets, but as the saying goes, quality over quantity, and as the night progressed the quality of the performance started lacking due to McMorrow overworking his vocals. Even in Red Dust, the opener for the second set, it was evident that McMorrow's vocals weren't doing what he wanted them to do, something he apologised for many times during the second set. Despite this he threw out some crowd favourites including Gold and We Don't Eat and finished with the spine-tingling Cavalier, which showcased his amazing vocal range and packed that emotional punch lacking in the first set.

McMorrow is a joy to listen to live, but unfortunately this show tried to pack too much in. True Care has some great tracks on it, but its worthiness as a stand-alone set is debatable. Similarly, McMorrow's second set didn't need to be 18 songs long, and towards the end fatigue was evident in both the audience and McMorrow as a performer. An enjoyable, but long, evening.