Bristol holds a special significance for Hurts. It is not just that the Manchester duo were playing at the Trinity Centre, one of the city’s best but most underused venues, but that their second single Wonderful Life is a love story set “on a bridge across the Severn” and at “Temple station”.
Lead singer Theo Hutchcraft proudly told the audience that the song was all about Bristol, and that he has been sharing his love for our city across the world with his musical partner Adam Anderson.
Bristol deserves to be loved, and so do Hurts, an extraordinary combination of 80s synths and opera, who make pop music with a very European aesthetic.
Think Ultravox by Vienna brought into 2010 and performed by men in sharp black suits and waistcoats and perfectly slicked back hair.
Hurts’ own version of Vienna is Verona, the hidden last track on debut album Happiness and the first time the sheer scale and artfulness of a Hurts live performance came to the fore.
Throughout the show, a backing singer had stood stock still at the back of the stage, dressed identically to Hutchcraft in black and white. In fact, the five musicians on stage in suits and waistcoats looked like they could be in the middle of a photo shoot by Control director Anton Corbijn.
But for Verona, this backing singer suddenly burst into opera as he sung the chorus, remaining stock still with only his arms rising to the ceiling from by his side. When the final song Better Than Love finished, he was the last to leave the stage, giving an elegant bow of the head before exiting.
It was an example of the almost performance art aspect of a Hurts gig. Perfectly composed songs such as orchestral next single Stay, and Devotion, their duet with Kylie Minogue who sadly couldn’t be in Bristol last night, are artfully-crafted gems from this most enigmatic duo.
Hurts did not return for an encore after Better Than Love, preferring instead that their set was viewed as an unbroken whole.
The city fathers need to pull their fingers out and build that much-promised arena, for arenas beckon for Hurts and that is where their love for Bristol and Bristol’s love for them could next be shared.
