LIVE REVIEW : THE UNDERTONES AT KOKO 24/05/2013

Oh the drawbacks of living in London !!! There's so much stuff happening that you sometimes wish that you could split yourself in half and attend different gigs on the same night ! On that particular evening  I had to choose between seeing The Undertones at Koko or  the recently reformed Dream Syndicate at Dingwalls. Despite having seen The Undertones once a few years ago in a festival in France, I choose to go and see them (probably because I'm more interested in Steve Wynn's solo records than the ones he did with The Dream Syndicate). The show was advertised as an early one with support bands The Wolfhounds on at 7.30 pm and The Undertones at 8.30 with a curfew at 10. When I arrived at the venue at 7.15, the place was almost empty and The Wolfhounds were forced to play to a very sparse audience. Their gig almost didn't happen due to the bass player not managing to get his instrument working. After 15 minutes of coming and going off the stage with the dodgy bass, the problem was finally solved with Undertones bass player Michael Bradley lending his bass. They then proceeded to play a half hour set of material that sounded like a cross between Wire and The Buzzcocks (with less memorable songs). The Undertones came on stage at 8.40 to a (at last) packed room. Faces have a few more wrinkles and singer Paul Mcloone's beer belly has gained a few inches since last time I saw them (beer belly + low waist jeans = no good) but the band seemed on good form and plunged straight into a great version of "Jimmy Jimmy". The set list was centered around their eponymous debut LP and complemented with songs cherry picked from the rest of their records (including the two they have put out since reforming in 1999). Paul Mcloone and Michael Bradley did most of the inbetween song banter but unfortunately for me my ears are untrained to the northern Irish accent so most of the time the jokes were lost on me. The revelation of the gig for me was how good a guitar player Damian O'Neill is, he definitely gives Mick Jones or Steve Jones a run for their money !!!  Despite playing for just just one hour and twenty minutes they managed to cramp thirty songs in their set. If the Undertones are playing in your town go and see them, they're definitely put on the best gig of all the punk bands of the classic era that are still touring.

LIVE REVIEW : JOSH ROUSE AT ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALLS 22/05/2013

This was my second visit at the Assembly Halls, the first one being for the Zombies last October. Josh Rouse is touring to promote his new LP "The Happiness Waltz" which sees him return to the sound he developed on his most successful albums ("1972" and "Nashville"). Before Josh Rouse came on with his backing, we got a small opening act courtesy of Sean Rowe, singer-songwriter from New-York (state not town, he insisted on the difference). Mr Rowe has a fantastic voice (a bit similar to Chris Rea) and is a very committed performer. He did a short set of his songs and finished with two covers (one being "Long Black Veil" made famous by versions by The Band and Johnny Cash).  Rouse came on stage after a short break accompanied by his 3 piece band. He choose to open the gig with a song from his first LP "Dressed Up Like Nebraska".He introduced the song by saying that each time he played it, he was reminded of feelings of being jet-lagged and of a promoter who one disliked the song and told him in no uncertain terms. This was followed by "Domesticated Lovers" (from "Country Mouse, City House", his best album after Nashville in my opinion, sadly a bit under-represented in tonight's set list) and by a few tunes from the new LP, including new single "Julie (Come out of the rain)". Predictably it was the songs from "1972" and "Nashville" that drew the biggest crowd response. Rouse seemed in good spirits if a little tired (can't use the jet lagged excuse now that he leaves in Spain !!!). He's not a hugely communicative performer but he did attempt a few jokes  including one weird one about how bad the weather had been that the day when it had been quite good (albeit by British standards). To round off the proceedings we got a couple of tunes from Subtitulo, El turista and the Long Vacations album. The backing band was good, shining on the harmonies with every member contributing. The guitar player seemed a bit tense on a couple of solos attracting a couple of raised eyebrows from Rouse. A good gig, that by bringing together songs from almost all his albums highlighted the high standards of Rouse's songwriting through the years