musikkredaktor It was an intimate and unique affair that will stay with me forever. So much so that I had to stifle my coughs and Reagan from the Exorcist noises due to a chest infection for the clapping in between songs. Just black coffee for me tonight. And not a lovely horrible pinot or five.
I first got introduced to Mark’s music when ‘By the Time that I awoke’ got put on a mixtape for me some years before. Good memories. Mark has loitered on the fringes of Hollywood for years. He is what I imagine Bill Hicks would have been as a lounge singer, whom isn’t afraid to say what he thinks. Standout songs for me were ‘My love for you is undying’ and ‘Blood test’ but this is only because I forget the names to the other ones, when listening to their beauty in entirety. I made constant mental notes that have been forgotten, lost to his aura.
A listener at the front had an empty chair next to her, so he joined her for a song.
Mark is a masterful storyteller. His soul bleeds into the microphone as he sings off loose-leaf paper, with a friend on grand piano and an occasional drum box. A listener at the front had an empty chair next to her, so he joined her for a song. He exposes his soul but at the same time doesn’t quite let you in. Eye contact with the audience is minimal.
In true maverick fashion, Mark chose to perform a free gig at the Appollon the next evening, instead of earning money in Zurich, which was meant to be the last gig of his tour. Pressed up against the back window of Appollon the following evening, like that dirty scene in Titanic, I hope he understood what he meant to the people in attendance.
I don’t really believe in giving a rating, as a gig is so subjective, but I would say it was the best gig I had ever been to, as to the event, and Mark, being so different to anything I’d ever witnessed prior.