Paolo Morena is a travelling troubadour that has finally settled down. You could say he now has found and placed his roots in music as well as life. I first remember seeing Paolo play live with The Morenas many moons back at a Bay Day festival, when it was held at The Bay Horse. I didn’t get it. Which was a shame, as I’d known Paolo Morena for quite some time and always enjoyed his irrepressible enthusiasm and forward thinking. Nothing, on the surface, ever seemed to dent his ongoing drive.
So it was with a little trepidation that I prepared to go see The Mighty Small‘s album launch at Hooga. I needn’t have worried. The newly decorated Hooga has a hint of once being a prohibition secret room at the back of a hotel for illegal drinking and gambling. Lost in time and put to rest under a dust sheet since the 1920′s, and now eased back into life. Hooga and The Mighty Small on that Thursday night was a perfect match.
The room was nicely filled and the anticipation cranked up as Paul took to the stage. Far from looking vulnerable on his own up there, his infectious enthusiasm and likeability reached out and bridged the gap between audience and artist. I knew what was coming but had no idea at how the writing and performing had matured since The Morenas. If you use effects to loop sounds to create a multi-layered song, the danger of error is always going to be high. Make a mistake on stage and it’s gone in a second – loop it, and it’s back again in 4. But any concerns were quickly diminished. It was pretty clear that there had been some intense rehearsing to get this right and make it work, for the timing, looping and ‘pedal dancing’ were pretty faultless.
All musicians, I believe, are haunted by their idols at times throughout their careers, and Morena’s love of Jeff Buckley appeared to be holding him back in his earlier incarnations. This time we saw a maturing of the song writing process that had gone beyond these influences and now stood up on a stage ready to be counted for what it was. With more melancholy than I had previously seen, and the freedom to add texture and layer wherever it was needed, whether it be acoustic, electric, bass, harmonica or keys, it was very easy to forget this was just one man on a stage. The songs now dip and dive with a clever use of dynamics that only comes after years of mastering your art. Morena is no longer stretching for impossible high notes, now seemingly understanding his own strengths and working within them harmoniously.
Tonight’s performance just goes to show how much you can achieve if you know what you are doing and rehearse rehearse rehearse. It was a lesson for any musician preparing to tread the boards – know your stuff. This could so easily have been a disaster on so many different levels, but in fact it was a resounding success.
