REVIEW: Tricky @ The Sinclair 10/12
Photo Credit: David Wolff – Patrick
Review by Kainat Deo
On Monday, Oct. 12, the neon-lit marquee at 52 Church St. read, “TRICKY: SOLD OUT.” Adrian Nicholas Matthews Thaws, better known by his stage name Tricky, took to the stage at Sinclair, a dusky bower echoing with the chatter of eager showgoers. The audience reflected both the expectedly older crowd, there to relive Tricky’s iconic 1990s era, and younger trip-hop fans.
Scheduled to begin his performance at 8 p.m., Tricky did not emerge from the curtains until an hour later. An intense, raw performer, Tricky slunk onto the stage barefoot in a black hoodie, which he soon shed as the show progressed. The evening commenced with “Move Me,” originally released as a single in 2020, and later featured on his album “Lonely Guest.”
For the duration of the show, Sinclair was submerged in deep indigo lighting, letting shadows dance freely across the stage and through the crowd. Spending a considerable amount of time with his back turned to the audience, Tricky created space for vocalists Marta Zlakowska and Mitch Sanders, both of whom have appeared on several of his releases, to take the lead. During the mid-to-late 1990s, what many might argue was the peak of his career, Tricky frequently collaborated with his ex-inamorata Martina Topley-Bird, known for her hauntingly gossamer voice. On songs such as “Black Steel,” “Aftermath” and “Overcome,” from Tricky’s 1995 debut album “Maxinquaye,” Zlakowska took charge, putting on a powerful rendition of Topley-Bird’s distinct vocals.
Tricky’s stop in Cambridge serves as the third-to-last performance of his first North American tour in over eight years, in support of his 15th studio album released earlier this year, “Different When It’s Silent.” Throughout his musical career, Tricky has maintained his tone and identity as a performer and as a pioneer of the trip-hop genre. However, although credited by listeners as the primary architect of trip-hop, a complexly layered, dark and sultry genre, Tricky has expressed a total rejection of the label. His nature as an artist is marked by an aggressive detachment from mainstream categorization, placing emphasis on remaining eldritch.
The night’s song selection danced around Tricky’s discography, with “Tribal Drums” marking the three-fourths mark of the setlist. The hypnotic track smoldered to a close, with Tricky then turning around to utter his first and only words of the night, “Thank you very much. Thank you for spending the time with us.”
His decision to limit interaction with the crowd came across as an artistic choice to maintain an air of theatrical humility, working in tandem with his erratic dancing across the stage throughout the show.
In a 2013 interview with MOJO magazine, he expressed this strong distaste for fame, and said, “When I see artists who are full of themselves, I hate ‘em. It makes my stomach churn. […] My grandmother always used to say to me: ‘Be prepared to clean toilets one day if you have to.’ I don’t need to be this Tricky guy.”
In response, showgoers complimented Tricky’s reservation with quiet reverence for his presence throughout the evening, only becoming rowdy with applause and cheers for a highly anticipated encore to end the night.
Zlakowska and Sanders performed “Lucien,” a Tricky-mixed and produced track by Brooklyn-based duo Young Magic. Soon thereafter, Tricky reemerged with his back turned, swaying from side to side as Sanders delivered vocals for “Piano,” a track from the tour’s focus album.
The evening came to a close with a long, drawn-out performance of “Vent,” from Tricky and Topley-Bird’s 1996 release “Pre Millennium Tension.” The cloudy blue haze drenching the venue was broken by coruscating, lightning-like flashes of white light, to which Tricky and fans swung their heads up and down and side to side aggressively. Several audience members began percussing on the edge of the stage within their reach, hands slapping the ground.
The energy was high when Tricky finally left the stage for good, a climactic conclusion to a titillating evening. Ian Van Zile, a quarter-century Tricky fan whose attendance marked his first live performance from the artist, described the evening as a perfect balance of chaos and melody.
“Even if a lot of the show wasn’t him, he is a great conductor, a mastermind of music, the Steven Spielberg of it all,” he said.