Review: Lloyd Cole at Astor Theatre

Lloyd Cole at Astor Theatre
Friday, March 28, 2026 

Few writers have the capacity to deliver an entire set of songs with opening lines that pull you in with immediacy like Lloyd Cole. Not only that, but he has also forged a career and catalogue by delivering insightful and compelling lyrical reasons to stay.

As the English singer-songwriter walked onto the stage of the Astor Theatre on Friday night, wearing a pristine white linen suit, he strapped on an electric guitar before edging his way to the solitary microphone positioned at the front of the stage. A single strum of his glistening white Telecaster gave way to Cole emotionally delivering the opening line to 29, from Lloyd Cole and the Commotions’ final album, Mainstream. As Cole crooned, “Life begins at 30, or so I have been told,” he beautifully imparted 29 with all the romantic longing and ironic detachment that had coloured his extensive oeuvre.

After spending the recent past performing acoustically, the current Australian tour saw Cole solo and electric. While the allure of performing as a travelling troubadour appealed to Cole as he transitioned from the mainstream to being an independent artist, he found the parameters of the folksinger approach unsatisfyingly restrictive. So he swapped his two acoustic guitars for two Telecasters and took a deconstructed deep dive into a career spanning over forty years and sixteen studio albums.

Following 29, Cole then ventured into his solo back catalogue for No More Love Songs. A song from his 2000 album The Negatives, which has been beautifully performed acoustically with the assistance of his son William during previous acoustic performances, tonight the song flourished with its reworked presentation. His hand rhythmically danced across the Telecaster’s strings, and the added electrified gravity poignantly underlined the song’s inherent world-weariness. Standing in the white glow of the bright spotlights and set against a blue curtained backdrop, Cole swapped his white guitar for a blonde counterpart, adding another subtle dash of colour to the stark stage mix.

Subtlety was also a characteristic that defined Cole’s recital of the lauded title track to the Lloyd Cole and the Commotions 1984 album, Rattlesnakes. The jaunty execution of the song’s opening notes was met with instant recognition from the audience, who quickly joined Cole in vocalising. Not only is the song a masterclass in the use of metaphors but also a lesson in cerebral songwriting. And of course it doesn’t hurt either that it’s also so damn catchy. As Cole re-tuned his guitar at the song’s completion, he raised his eyes to the audience and humourously clarified, “You might find yourself wanting to sing along, and I might look like I disapprove … but that’s just my face.”

Perfect Skin was another highlight of Cole’s opening set. Eyes closed, he hastened his strumming and imparted his 1980s magnum opus with an armoury of beautiful guitar accentuations. Not to be outdone was the more recent Night Sweats. Drawn from Cole’s 2019 album, Guesswork, the song not only thrived in its sultry, lounge-drenched presentation, but the ebb and flow of its vocal urgency sublimely expelled the song’s inherent sense of hope within a sea of self-destruction. It was a consummate performance of an utterly commanding song.

After performing Period Piece from his 2013 album Standards, Cole noted, “You will gather by now I’m your opening act. After a 20-minute intermission, I will then return and be the headline.” After turning in performances of Undressed from his 1995 album Love Story and 2cv from Rattlesnakes, Cole took his interlude. He reemerged a short time later to find the blue stage highlights had turned red. Continuity came via his continued exploration of Rattlesnakes with Charlotte Street before venturing forth a year to 1995’s Easy Pieces with Why I Love Country Music.

The title song from his 2023 album On Pain was then followed by the lead single No Blue Skies from his 1990 self-titled debut solo release. Cole next returned to the Commotions for Jennifer She Said, drawn from the band’s final album. While melancholy was the overriding feeling imparted by Cole’s performance thus far, the evening soon took on a much darker tone via My Other Life from 2003’s Music in a Foreign Language. A narrative tale of infidelity, murder, and retribution, the song is a surreally cinematic noir-infused treasure.

In returning to On Pain with The Idiot, Cole solicited the audience’s vocal assistance. Within the chorus, as Cole bellowed the lines “We’ll move to Berlin” and “We’ll cycle and swim”, the audience countered with the response of “Stop being drug addicts.” It was fun, esoteric, and enchantingly effective. In concluding Hey Rusty by morphing into Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run, Cole admitted he should probably end the show there. But he didn’t, instead extending the evening with one further song.

In prefacing his rendition of I’m Gone with the admission the song was in a small way inspired by The Triffids’ Wide Open Road, Cole then told a tale of seeing the band perform in Perth while touring Australia with Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. The venue was the Swan Hotel, and with skimpies commanding the attention of punters in the front bar, The Triffids were relegated to the venue’s backroom. Cole told the crowd he extended an invitation for The Triffids to tour Europe with the Commotions, but they were seemingly more interested in joining PiL on the road.

While there was an air of predictability to Cole’s two-song encore, the audience’s fervent anticipation emphatically overrode any inevitability. As he dived into Lost Weekend, Cole’s vocals were as velvety as at any point across the evening, and as his Telecaster hummed along, the audience joined the fray, contributing an inspired vocal presence. Cole then closed out the night with a soulful and affecting rendition of the sublimely beautiful Forest Fire. And with that, he took his final bow.

As the Astor Theatre filled with light and exit music while Cole was still on stage accepting the audience’s adulation, it was sadly a somewhat ushered conclusion to what was a beautifully measured performance.

BRETT LEIGH DICKS

Photos by Linda Dunjey