Between the Smiths, Electronic, and his solo work, Johnny Marr has amassed an impressive song catalogue. Look Out Live! is a quintessential distillation of these strands, packaged together with stage-padded giddiness. His voice lacks the timbre of Morrissey or the assertiveness New Order‘s Bernard Sumner possesses, but Marr makes up for it with enthusiasm: a puppy chasing after an affection he knows he can spot.
Apropos of form, the guitar is always front and centre: “Hi Hello”, an echoey riff trembling under the weight of audience participation. Chest-beating anthems “How Soon Is Now” and “This Charming Man” are reliably exciting, but it’s to Marr’s credit that “Easy Money” is another minor triumph of riff and word. He performs parts of “Easy Money” in a quasi-rap style, as a propulsive bass line undulates beneath. Pet Shop Boys‘ Neil Tennant joins for a rousing “Rebel Rebel”, and wisely so. It’s hard to picture the virile Marr singing a dainty David Bowie tune, which isn’t to say that Marr can’t deliver whimsy. “Getting Away With It” is colored by it, but his flair for camp stems from a gutsy instinct over theatrics.
Look Out Live! could just as easily have been subtitled “The Johnny Marr Songbook”, given that it boasts four decades of rock. Bravely, the set opens with “Sensory Street”, a synth-heavy piece barely touched by guitars. The pastoral poetry within “Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want” is even more intimate, given that it is just one man and his instrument; the bellowing solo is produced on a wooden model. Sing-along favourite “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” grooves along beneath the weight of a funky bass that momentarily threatens to steal the performance from the singer.
Aware of his (admittedly mild) limitations as a vocalist, Marr wisely acts like a storyteller, happily guided by the material at hand. He only stumbles through “Panic”, which really needs a more authoritative, stentorian delivery. Yet the buzz-saw interlude sounds as impressive as it did during the 1980s, proof that Marr remains one of the most formidable Irish-English musicians of his generation.
“Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One Before” is as much instrumental as it is ballad, closing with an impressive outro that positions his fingers all over the fretboard. Cheekily, he blasts out a reverb-fuelled strum in the style of Rory Gallagher, before chuckling: “That’s a good one.”
There are smatterings of cheers, claps, and salutes, but they occur between songs. Voices become very silent as “Armatopia” opens, a Manic Street Preachers call-back complete with a histrionic drum march. Midway through the composition, the cymbals prod up and down, as if paying homage to the disco records of yore.
Bravely, the dancey “Get the Message” is reinterpreted as a jazz number, with a plodding bass playing the lead. Adrenaline runs high on “Bigmouth Strikes Again”, as a gigantic cheer from the pundits greets the flamenco hook. Andy Rourke’s death in 2023 ended any speculation of a Smiths reunion, but judging by this spirited performance, Marr is fine doing his own thing.
What’s evident from this live record is how much Marr slavishly admires rhythm. Take “Spirit Power and Soul”, a power pop piece that opens with robotic drums and a hypnotic keyboard line; solos serve only to add dimension and direction to the work. Melody is also high on the agenda: flashy instrumentation isn’t one of his more desired facets. Despite his continued success as a bandmate, songwriter, and solo artist, Johnny Marr realizes that the songs are more important than the artist. Look Out Live! does the catalogue great reverence, justice, and flattery with conviction.