
At BBC6 Music Festival at Tramway, Father John Misty is in sparklingly clever and witty form and in a mood to build bridges following a car-crash BBC6 Music interview last year, thanking Radcliffe and Maconie for playing his new track “Ballad Of The Dying Man” despite what a miserable wretch I was on their show”.
The Sunday night show begins with a sermon from Father John Misty or to be more precise, a brief Q&A hosted by Lauren Laverne (Q: What can we expect from you today? A: “Songs. Feelings. Observations.”) at which he inavertently confirms himself for Glastonbury.
Father John Misty performs Ballad of the Dying Man at 6 Music Festival 2017.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi-_AQxv338
The 45-minute set that follows – comprised almost entirely of tracks taken from new album ‘Pure Comedy’ – is a more verbose, self-referential affair; before playing ‘Ballad of the Dying Man’, he even takes a moment to apologise to Mark Radcliffe for his car-crash interview with the 6Music presenter last year, shrugging that, “I’m not always a very cool guy.” .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPO7NJoPQcE
The undoubted highlight, however, is ‘Leaving L.A.’, whose 10-verse, 13-minute run time affords ample opportunity for sardonic ad-libbing “I ride for Nickelback” and “The comedy won’t stop even for little boys dying in department stores/ Or middle-aged men on promotional tours,” are just two of the standouts. Needless to say, the world is always a more entertaining place when Josh Tillman has a new record to promote.



