Actors who are also musicians have a chequered reputation, you have many who perfectly balance the two like Will Smith and Billy Bob Thornton but you also have the direct inverse with the likes of Steven Segal and his blues/reggae tracks (seriously). Thankfully Kiefer Sutherland is the former, The Lost Boys villain also happens to be a talented singer-songwriter and his appearance in Manchester proved that to a number of sceptical audience members and helped introduce me to live country music, one of the many genres I have limited knowledge of.
New York-based singer-songwriter Sari Schorr was first and her set was a really relaxed yet engaging collection of songs. People were still slowly filling the room, ordering drinks and buying merch and Sari being on stage made it a really comfortable environment.
There were only two people on stage, Sari and her guitarist Jim Kirkpatrick but they both managed to run the gamut of human emotion in just half an hour with songs like the soulful and introspective ‘Damn the Reason’ and the upbeat and hopeful ‘Back to LA’.
It was a very simple no-frills set that was propelled by a stellar vocal performance and some surprisingly intricate guitar work and the inclusion of Paul McCartney’s ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ was an added bonus. Truly a fantastic start to the night.
Next up was Fine Lines, a much more conventional act with more high-energy tracks and a considerably bigger lineup with featured BBC radio personality Tom Robbinson. The larger lineup and inclusion of more instruments made for a much fuller and richer sound.
It’s all well performed and fairly accessible, the musicianship is fantastic with violin leads on tracks like ‘Stay’. It’s strange hearing the British accents between songs and hearing Southern accents during the songs but everyone sings with an American accent so it’s fairly easy to ignore.
Finally, the Designated Survivor himself accompanied his backing band to the stage, Kiefer Sutherland came on brimming with energy as he started to play ‘Ole Lonely Life,’ an upbeat and lively blues-tinged track that got an already excited audience to its feet.
Despite being a several-time Emmy award winner with a career spanning decades and countless iconic roles under his belt, Kiefer Sutherland’s best quality as a former is how he seems like just any guy you’d meet in a bar. He’s always seemed like a consummate professional with a great deal of dedication to his craft and his music gives you more of an understanding of him as a person, tracks like ‘Going Home,’ a song about leaving a bar before closing time may sound mundane but mundanity from Hollywood legends is always really interesting and does a lot to humanise them.
Kiefer was quiet for a while through the set but still occasionally chimed in to see how everyone was doing and to occasionally give context to the songs he was playing, the most notable of these was ‘Bloor Street’ which he explained to be a major part of his life growing up in Canada. These moments are why talking to the audience is important, they can cause a song that you’d otherwise have no stake in to develop emotional connections with and it made it all the more clear how important these songs are to Kiefer himself.
‘County State Jail’ was a personal favourite on the album Bloor Street, it’s a dour track about going to prison and the reality of the situation setting in. It has a lot of weight to it and even though it’s framed from a character that doesn’t exist, you have a fairly clear perspective of what this person would be going through and that’s a very important part of storytelling.
Prior to attending this show, my closest connection to country music was Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (I know he’s not country but you know what I mean) and much to my surprise, there were two covers played during the set, ‘Ways to Be Wicked’ and ‘Honey Bee’. Both of these were very faithful to the spirit of Tom Petty and it was wonderful to hear these tracks live after Tom Petty himself had passed away in 2017.
Kiefer ended the show with ‘Friday Night’ and ‘Agave,’ two distortion-filled ragers designed to get the entire crowd downing their drinks and getting ready to go get blitzed with amazing tunes still swimming around in their heads. The only downside being that it was Tuesday night and the trains in Manchester were barely running by the end of the show.
Country music has been something that has always passed me for no good reason and if the majority of country was like what Kiefer Sutherland had to offer then maybe it’s time RAMzine started covering more country shows.
