More about: Mark Lanegan

As the sun sets outside, the chapel light dims, and Mark Lanegan enters the stage without saying a word. Sounding like he’s spent the last 30 years in a dark and dingy bar smoking and drinking bourbon with Tom Waits, Lanegan is all dressed in black and holding the mic stand tightly with both hands.

Through the course of his career, Mark Lanegan has reached some sort of cult status within his genre. After starting his career in the early eighties with grunge band Screaming Trees, he has released several solo albums, as well as collaborating with various artists such as Duke Garwood, Belle and Sebastian’s Isobel Campbell and Kurt Cobain, which whom he recorded a Lead Belly cover album.

Three songs in, Lanegan speaks his first words of the night - a simple but humble ‘thank you’, before diving right back into the next song. He gets away with not saying much - his music speaks for itself. His presence is uncanny, and he comes across as intense, yet honest and vulnerable.

Guitarist Jeff Fielder chips in with backing vocals on the tracks on which Lanegan would normally have a female companion, and he does it well. There is a lot I could say about Jeff Fielder - he’s an incredible guitarist, charismatic as few, and has seemingly somewhat of a right hand function for Lanegan. He is vital.

They finish their set, before coming back on for a five song encore - which included the highlight of the night - a mesmerizing performance of ‘I am the Wolf’, written by Duke Garwood for Mark Lanegan. The two of them making music together is a work of art, and Garwood does really make the water for Lanegan to swim in.

More about: Mark Lanegan