China Crisis wrote and recorded a song in 1983 called Soul Awakening.
It’s the first song they play live in Seattle after a long gap. The last time they toured around here, the Queen was half way towards the Diamond Jubilee that she’s three days into celebrating. The first single from U2’s Joshua Tree was about to come out. According to setlist.fm, the last time they played here was when they toured on Santana’s ticket, when Santana’s stock was somewhat low, somewhere in time between Black Magic Woman and Smooth. So, it’s been a while.
Soul Awakening is the dreamy, mellow number which closed their second album Working with Fire and Steel, the album before the relatively big one in America, Flaunt the Imperfection, which Walter Becker from Steely Dan produced. It comes out to a lineup old and new. There are four men standing in a line across the front of the stage. The meat of the sandwich is founders Eddie Lundon and Garry Daly. The metaphorical bread on either side brings saxophone on the left and keyboards on the right.
The four wear box-fresh shirts from Target. This is the first night of the tour and clothes and equipment haven’t made it out of London Heathrow yet. A few gremlins did make it through immigration and take down the saxophone and dial up a buzz for a time which maybe costs the set a song or two. All grist to singer Garry Daly’s mill. He’s a storyteller; the night has flavors of “an evening with…” with songs and stories but it’s really just extended, unhurried banter. While co-founder, band leader, guitarist and sometime vocalist Eddie Lundon conducts the music, Garry scatters forty years of anecdotes across the set. Soul Awakening steps away to let a good five minutes of banter in.
We get the story behind audience favorite Arizona Sky (coming off a bus, looking up at a night sky in Arizona – we could have guessed that one), a David Byrne-inspired vocal here, a Motown/Stevie Wonder hook there. And the band adds in snippets of those samples before transitioning into the China Crisis by-product. It’s a neat trick from a generous band.
Soul Awakening emerges in front of a supper club crowd at the Triple Door in Seattle that at first looks on appreciatively and applauds warmly but will be up and dancing within the hour. The set that follows covers all bases. We get the singles – Christian, Wishful Thinking, Black Man Ray and King in a Catholic Style. We get deep cuts from 1982 debut “Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms. Some People Think It’s Fun to Entertain” and a couple of newer songs. It’s Lundon’s sixtieth birthday on a technicality (born in Kirkby, Liverpool where it’s already tomorrow) so he gets a round of happy birthday. Waiters get a wave from the stage as they sally back and forth and a waltzing couple at the front gets an approving nod.
This is a band with space to play and no need to hurry. Their music is a tonic and they’re good company for an evening. It’s really no more complicated than that.
China Crisis played Seattle’s Triple Door on June 8th 2022.