Having begun life nearly 90 years ago as a multi-purpose cinema and variety hall, it is little wonder that the O2 Apollo Theatre in Manchester is the perfect place in which to enjoy the Father John Misty experience. The man is blessed with those rugged film star good looks and his performances have now become almost vaudevillian in nature. He is, after all, a modern song and dance man.
Since trading places behind the Fleet Foxes’ drum kit for that of his alter-ego Father John Misty some 14 years ago the man born Joshua Michael Tillman has certainly come a long way. In that time, he has released half a dozen albums that have seen him evolve from 2012’s Fear Fun and the relative peace and tranquillity of Laurel Canyon into the epicentre of last November’s Mahashmashana, a record of far greater emotional impact and widescreen vision.
This evening, then, we all step behind the white terracotta façade of this handsome Art Deco building to bear witness to the latest creative incarnation of Father John Misty. This resident of Los Angeles has travelled the breadth of his home country and then crossed the Atlantic Ocean to be here on a short UK/EU tour in support of Mahashmashana.
After his seven-piece band – comprising a brace of guitars, a couple of banks of keyboards, a lone saxophone, plus the more customary bass and drums – have filed onto the stage, the man assuming the persona of Father John Misty takes his place in the spotlight and leads them all into a gloriously uplifting, pitch-perfect ‘I Guess Time Just Makes Fools of Us All’, the penultimate track from Mahashmashana. By the time that Tillman reaches the end of the set proper, he will have performed the album in its epic entirety, a dramatic live realisation of a record whose title is derived from the Sanskrit word for cremation ground.
Are we here to hear the last rites being read for Father John Misty before Josh Tillman creates another supreme artistic identity? If so, this final passage, this series of shows, his last, long goodbye is a magnificent way in which to bid a fond farewell. This performance has it all. Two hours of theatre, comedy, drama, tragedy, show business pizzaz, and 19 fantastic songs.
Each and every one of the records he has released under the name of Father John Misty is represented here tonight. There is a delightfully nostalgic ‘Nancy From Now On’ from his debut album. He plays five songs from I Love You, Honeybear, the 2015 breakthrough album that elevated Tillman into a higher critical firmament, two of which form part of a stunning encore, including a grand finale courtesy of the imperious title track where he shifts effortlessly through the gears from slow burn to dramatic conclusion.
Tracks from Pure Comedy (2017), God’s Favorite Customer (2018), and Chloë and the Next 20th Century (2022) are woven into the fabric of a carefully curated, beautifully balanced setlist which covers all points on Father John Misty’s recording career. But it is the run of five songs from the deliriously funked-up blues of ‘She Cleans Up’ through the tortured anguish of ‘Screamland’, the soaring ballads of first ‘Summer’s Gone’ – where accompanied solely by piano Father John Misty assumes a Sinatra In The Wee Small Hours mantle, the immaculate phrasing and power voice of his voice never sounding better – and then his fiery indictment of life’s struggles on ‘Mental Health’, before arriving at Mahashmashana’s monumental title track that moves this concert onto another, higher experiential plane. If this is really Josh Tillman saying goodbye to Father John Misty then he parts company with him with no regrets and nothing left to prove.
