Echo & The Bunnymen brought 'Songs to Learn & Sing' to Brooklyn Steel (review, setlist, video)

The lights went down at Brooklyn Steel and the packed house cheered as Echo & The Bunnymen guitarist Will Sergeant walked on stage…alone. Approaching the center stage mic, he greeted the audience and then said, “Just to let you know, Mac’s got a bit of laryngitis,” Sergeant said to some immediate grumbling from the audience. “The show must go on, of course, but just know Mac won’t be at 100% strength. 99.5, though. See ya in a minute.”

With expectations lowered, so began the Brooklyn stop on the Bunnymen’s “Songs to Learn & Sing” tour. Though the name might have you thinking they’re playing the band’s classic 1985 singles collection in full, it was more a repurposing of the title for a run-through of some of the band’s most popular songs which actually didn’t include at least a third of what is on that album (“Do it Clean,” “The Puppet,” “The Back of Love” and “A Promise” are not being played on this tour.) Which was fine; I love all of those songs but I’ve heard “Do it Clean” plenty of times over the years and it was really hard to argue with what they did play across two sets and an encore. Ian McCulloch‘s voice was noticeably more froggy than usual on opener “Going Up” from their 1980 debut, Crocodiles, and he struggled a bit through the next few songs, but by the time things got to the gothy “All My Colours (Zimbo),” his pipes were rallying. And even when it was rough, it was still unmistakably Ian McCulloch. That voice. There’s no one else like him.

One aspect to the Songs to Learn & Sing tour is the Bunnymen are really encouraging the audience to sing along, and on some of their biggest hits the band would lay back at times, making the crowd the star. I could’ve done without that, personally, as Brooklyn Steel did not need to be asked to sing along to anything. We were all there on a Friday night to have a good time. Other times, it was like Mac was letting the crowd sing the notes he couldn’t hit. Will Sergeant, though, was spinning gold all night, laying down his signature leads and atmospherics, and breaking out the autoharp for “The Killing Moon” which was especially cool to see.

There was a 20-minute break between sets and when they came back out, Mac’s voice was remarkably better and the energy in the room went up. “Over the Wall,” with some theatrics from both Will and Mac, is always great, and “Never Stop” had the whole place dancing. “Nothing Lasts Forever,” their Britpoppy 1997 hit was one of only two songs of the night that weren’t from the Bunnymen’s imperial phase and was the night’s only moment when Mac went into his signature covers medley thing (which on other tours would happen during “Do it Clean”). Being in NYC, this meant Lou Reed Reed songs, including “Walk on the Wild Side” (“Hey New York, take a walk on the Merseyside” was a nice adlib) and “Coney Island Baby.”

From there it was a parade of hits: the Doors-y “Bedbugs and Ballyhoo,” “The Killing Moon” (one of the orchestrated sing-a-longs) and “Lips Like Sugar” to close out the second set. The band’s usual two encores were combined into one due to the venue’s curfew, which was all the better since walking on and off stage is, let’s be honest, all for show anyway. We got two of the Bunnymen’s greatest songs: a storming version of “The Cutter,” and then the beautiful “Ocean Rain” to finish the night on an emotional high note. Mac was clearly saving his strength for that one.

A few notes:

• Three songs from the first set were axed due to Mac’s laryngitis: new-ish song “Haunted in Brussels” which few probably missed, but not getting “Villiers Terrace” and “Heads Will Roll” was disappointing.
• We may not have gotten “Villiers Terrace” even if Mac had been 100%; I head they were planning to do a cover of Velvet Underground’s “I’m Waiting for the Man” instead.
• Despite the laryngitis, Mac was his usual chatty self between songs. He’s a funny dude with a dry wit, and I know he was dropping some great deadpan zingers… but between his vocal issues and his thick-as-marmite Liverpool accent, I only caught a few words here and there.
• I will admit had no idea who was opening the show when I walked in and was surprised to find a jazz combo led by NYC saxophonist Nicola Caminiti and whose group included, on a couple songs, Bunnymen keyboardist Mike Smith.
• As to the current Bunnymen live band, I thought they sounded great. Nobody can replace drummer Pete DeFreitas (who died in 1989) but Simon Finley, who has been with them for nearly 20 years, is pretty close.

Check out video and setlist from Brooklyn Steel below.

SETLIST: Echo & the Bunnymen @ Brooklyn Steel 5/17/2024

Set 1:
Going Up
All That Jazz
Flowers
Rescue
All My Colours (Zimbo)
Seven Seas
Bring On the Dancing Horses

Set 2:
Show of Strength
Over the Wall
Never Stop
Nothing Lasts Forever / Walk on the Wild Side / Don’t Let Me Down / Coney Island Baby
Bedbugs and Ballyhoo
The Killing Moon
Lips Like Sugar

Encore:
The Cutter
Ocean Rain