John Cale – POPtical Illusion Tour live gallery & review from Vicar Street Dublin 31.03.2025

To quote Judy Nylon, “Even if you knew nothing about him when he walked into a room, you’d know you were looking at a complicated fabulous entity.”

John Cale is indeed a complicated fabulous entity, interesting and important as much now as he was in 1964 with the Velvet Underground. (In fact, he WAS the most interesting and important part of the Velvet Underground.) Onstage and live in Vicar Street, he doesn’t sound like an 83-year-old man. Everything is contemporary and fresh, in spite of the set list stretching as far back as 1974 (or 1968, if you include a brooding version of Nico’s “Frozen Warnings” – ominous, empty and dark with a deeply bowed bass and no drums). There’s a stunningly beautiful and deconstructed “Heartbreak Hotel”, and batterings from “My Maria” and “Company Commander”.

He takes us on journey of his career, through a soundscape that changes between lush beauty and heavy brutality, from flowing washes of abstractions and drones to edgy, angular pain. And perhaps unironically, he treats us to a brand new, unreleased song, “The Long Way Out Of Pain”, possibly bringing to mind “Music For A New Society”. As always, there’s a relentlessness to everything, making you feel that you are (or more likely he is) teetering on the edge of a madness that’s seething just below the surface. He plays atonal chords like he’s feeling them out for the first time. Songs that appear to be standard rock, aren’t quite. He takes us to places in ways that no other musician does.

He leaves the stage with his brilliant band, saying “We’ll be back in a moment”, and when he returns, the respectful response from the audience that has risen to it’s feet is something to behold. He quips “What a nice surprise you are. Keep the faith” before finally treating us to a mesmerising ten minute wig-out of “Barracuda”.

There is so much that other musicians can learn from John Cale. Actually, there’s everything.

John Cale photos & set-list:

Set-list:
Shark-Shark
Captain Hook
Letter From Abroad
Setting Fires
Heartbreak Hotel (Elvis Presley cover)
Long Way Out Of Pain
My Maria
Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night
Company Commander
Out Your Window
Frozen Warnings (Nico cover)
Villa Albani
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Barracuda

Photos & words Cormac Figgis @themasterswitch