LIVE REVIEW : JASON FALKNER AT THE ISLINGTON 24/10/2013

This was quite an event for all London Power-pop fans. Organised by the Lojinx label (UK label of Brendan Benson and Ken Stringfellow and plenty of other interesting bands), this show was Jason Falkner's
first appearance in London since 2002. Announced just one month ahead of the gig, it sold out in 2 days. The venue was a new bar near Angel station called The Islington that has a separate room with a a small
stage. The room is nicely arranged with red curtains covering the walls. It provides is a nice setting for solo shows. A special poster was offered to every person who attented the gig and you could even order a limited edition T-shirt by subscription before the gig !!!

The room was full of middle aged bearded guys that probably know every lyric of the "Bliss Descending EP" by heart. Falkner announced after a couple of songs that he had no particular setlist which resulted in several members of the audience trying to request every single song he had ever put out. The set-list covered the different periods of his career. He even included a couple of songs from The Grays ("Very Best Years" and "Both Belong"). The audience member that yelled for "Both Belong" had a similar voice to Marlon Brando in The Godfather which prompted Falkner to say that was the coolest voice he had ever heard and that we would only answer requests from that guy from now on. The songs from this first couple of albums got the best response but the hardcore audience knew all the songs anyway so... I wasn't expecting Falkner to be as entertaining, the moment he yelled "What A wanker !!!" after he had just started playing the solo in "She Goes to Bed"  was priceless. He also quipped that his songs were big hits then adding "for all the people in this room". The gig went by in a blast and finished with a four song encore containing an excellent cover of "Wichita Lineman". All we can hope for now is that this association with Lojinx will mean more UK gigs and maybe a UK release of his latest record in this country (only available as an expensive Japanese Import at the time being).