LIVE REVIEW : GRUFF RHYS AT SOHO THEATRE 05/05/2014

A three day weekend, beautiful weather and two gigs, what more could you ask. I thought I would enjoy The High Llamas more than Gruff Rhys but the exact opposite happened. I came out of the gig really impressed by the guy and his musicianship. It was my first time at Soho Theatre, and a wonderful place it is. They do simultaneous shows at the same time. The Gruff Rhys performance (you'll see while I use that term later on) was due to start at 9.15 pm in the Theatre that's located upstairs while a comedy night was running downstairs from 8pm. The venue has a n ice bar area and you can get a good pint of Czech beer for a reasonable price so all good for me.

The show was the first of a 5 night residency that Rhys was playing to promote his latest project American Interior. A multimedia offering (movie, record, book and app), it tells the story of John Evan's, a distant relative of Rhys who lived during the 18th century. Welsh born, he immigrated to America to find an Indian tribe who were said to have been descendants of a mythical Welsh figure of the 12th century called Madoc. Madoc is said to have discovered the American continent before Christopher Colombus. The night opened with a corny beginning of the eighties documentary on Madoc featuring a silver haired and over-enthusiastic Welsh Historian recounting the tale of Madoc. After the movie finished, Rhys came on stage wearing a hat made out of toy wolf. The screen used for projecting the documentary was also used for a slide show (displaying low battery warnings towards the end of the show) that Rhys used in between songs to narrate the story of John Evans quest through The United States. A mixture of tongue in cheek humour and genuine affection for his ancestor provided a very entertaining evening. Playing Solo, Rhys used a myriad of low tech gizmos to accompany him and looped in own voice to create beautiful sounding harmonies on several numbers. The chord structures of his songs are really simple but the vocals he puts on top are simply astounding. He really is a fantastic singer and storyteller. He was accompanied for the whole show by a puppet representing John Evans (quite heavily featured in the slideshow too).