Peter Doherty arrived for his gig at the Mandela Hall three months after he was originally set to play the venue with enough time passed for the audience to have listened to and digested his excellent solo album Grace/Wastelands. An album designed to present Doherty as a solo artist, distinct from his current act Babyshambles (and explaining the move from “Pete” to “Peter”), the accompanying tour similarly had Doherty as (except for one instance of an accompanying harmonica) the sole musician on stage.  This, combined with the relatively confined surroundings of Mandela Hall, suggested the possibility of an intimate atmosphere.

BY PADRAIC GRANT

Contrary to these expectations, Doherty stormed through the set with minimal crowd interaction, only pausing to offer a dedication to Gerry Conlon and ask for the bouncers to let an apprehended stage diver stay for the rest of his gig. The anticipation fostered by the acoustic aspect was banished almost immediately, with the songs sounding vaster than the minimal instrumentation would suggest. Two interpretations can be offered for the manner in which Doherty performed; either this was the performance of a revitalised artist eager to present his work in an exhilarated mode, or it was Doherty trying to get out of the building as quickly as he could. The latter interpretation may be given weight by the lack of an encore, the appearance of the house lights at the end of the set leading to a collective sense of surprise and then disappointment.

The brevity of his performance notwithstanding, Doherty’s musicianship was admirable and occasionally electric – the opening chords of  ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ provoking a collective rush from the bar for example – and the sheer weight given to his songs, despite the lack of accompaniment, demonstrated the potential classic status the gig could have garnered had he chosen to slow the pace down and offer some more introspective moments amidst the uninterrupted flow from song to song.

Doherty’s choice of songs reflected his work from The Libertines, Babyshambles and his more recent solo work. Naturally, anthemic tracks like ‘Time For Heroes’ and ‘Killamangiro’ received the largest reaction from the crowd, but more obscure selections like ‘Hooligans On E’ were a welcome addition for those who have delved more deeply into his discography. No problems with the setlist then, nor any major criticisms of his musicianship, but it can only be wondered if Doherty would have made a better impression had he varied the mood a little rather than rushing through even reflective songs like ‘Music When The Lights Go Out’. Beyond that the gig offered enough of his work for those who had waited three months to see him in action, and expectations have been raised should he choose to return to Belfast for any tour he undertakes in the future.