LIVE REVIEW : TELEVISION AT THE ROUNDHOUSE 19/11/2013

The Roundhouse seems to be the venue of choice for bands of the first punk era. After seeing The Damned play here last December, Blondie in July, here I was back in the same venue for Television. Contrary to the other bands, this gig was not a first as I'd seen the band in 2004 at Le Bataclan in Paris (serious contender for warmest music venue in the world). At the time the band still had Richard Lloyd as a member and even though I wasn't really familiar with all their songs, I had enjoyed the gig a lot. I was particularly impressed with the way Verlaine and Lloyd seemed to be able to discuss sound issues while still carrying out their famous guitar interplay.

Fast forward almost a decade and Richard Lloyd has disappeared (tired of the lack of progress on recording a new Television album) and has been replaced by a long time collaborator of Tom Verlaine in his solo work called Jimmy Rip. This gig at the Roundhouse was part of a small English tour centered around an appearance at the last ATP Festival in Camber Sands where the band was scheduled to play its landmark album Marquee Moon in its entirety. Despite numerous announcements that all the other gigs of the tour weren't "Marquee Moon" shows, we still got the whole album at The Roundhouse (albeit in random order with other songs interspersed). 

Jimmy Rip is a more than able replacement guitarist but he definitely sounds better when he's given free reigns to play in his own style rather than replicating Richard Lloyd's original parts. Best example of that was his solo on 1880 or So, completely different from what Richard Lloyd used to play but it still suited the song. Bass player Fred Smith was absolutely spotless playing just the right amount of notes while still adding some nice flourishes here and there. Good performance of Billy Ficca on drums too. Tom Verlaine seemed to be in a good mood (not a guarantee) and regularly thanked the audience and even said that he hoped the sound was good. The performance was much more focused than the Paris show with less tune-athlons between numbers. Two unreleased numbers were aired, a quite lengthy song called Persia that the band has been playing since their 2001 comeback and an unreleased song from 1974 called I'm Gonna Leave You. Persia was the best of the two but could use some editing. Verlaine's vocals were much better than what I was expecting (there's videos on you tube of a Brazilian gig in 2005-6 that are quite painful to watch). All in all a really good performance that did the band's best album justice.

LIVE REVIEW : THE PRETTY THINGS AT THE HALF MOON PUTNEY 08/11/2013

This gig was my second visit to The Half Moon since I moved to London. I came last year to see The Kast Off Kinks, a Kinks tribute band that's made up of ex-members of the actual band. I was quite surprised to see that the gig was sold out in advance and even more by the rapturous reception the band got during their performance (they were really good but still a tribute band). I had seen The Pretty Things once previously at a small free festival in Andoain (small town just under San Sebastian in Spain). The setting was rather drab : a makeshift stage set up on a concrete square with 3 huge tower blocks encircling it. Adding to the misery, the weather was rotten with a thick mist gathering round the hills that surround the town. The band was headlining which in the UK would mean a a stage time of 9pm. As it was Spain, headline means the band went on stage at midnight. As I had quite a bit of travel to do to go back to France after the gig I had to leave before the band finished their set. I promised myself that I would catch them when they would play a club date in London. I missed them twice as they played a gig at the 100 Club during the Christmas period last year and at The Borderline last August for The Record Collector Psych Festival. When I noticed they were playing The Half Moon I booked tickets straight away.

Only Phil May (lead singer) and Dick Taylor (lead guitar) are left from the original line-up of the band. Frank Holland (lead and rhythm guitar) joined when Parachute era guitarist Pete Tolson defected while the band was rehearsing for their end of the 1990's comeback. The young rhythm section of George Perez and Jake Greenwood joined when drummer Skip Allan and bass player Wally Waller had to stop touring for health reasons. As soon as the gig started with a superb and loud version of “Honey I need” from their first album I knew that the Half Moon was the perfect setting to see a band such as The Pretty Things. The gig's setlist was a mixture of their early albums R'n'b albums and tracks from their SF Sorrow LP (fantastic version of "Balloon Burning"). Not much from the post SF Sorrow era, only "Cries From The Midgnight Circus" from the Parachute album and a rarity in from the late sixties track  "Alexander" originally released under "The Electric Bananas" moniker. Roughly midway through the gig, there was a short acoustic set where Taylor on acoustic and May (accompanied by Holland on harmonica) paid hommage to there blues roots while recalling the first times they jammed together at Sidcup high school. Further reference to their musical roots followed with 2 Bo Diddley covers ("Mona" and "You Can't Judge A Book by Its Cover"). The gig finished with an impromptu appearance by former drummer Skip Allan who duetted with Phil May during the final song of the evening.

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).

LIVE REVIEW : THE ELECTRIC SOFT PARADE AT BUSH HALL 23/10/2013

 That gig was a bit of a last minute affair. I'd been humming and hawing about it for a while. I wasn't very familiar with anything ESP had put out since their first album and I had the Jason Falkner the following night. I made my mind up on the day of the gig and decidedto skip the 2 opening acts (not very nice I know but I needed some rest before the gig). I arrived at the venue round 8.30pm halfway through set of second opening act "Cold Crows Dead", I won't say anything about their set as I wasn't receptive at all to the music they played. Apart that they seem also to come from Brighton, they didn't have anything in common with ESP.

ESP came on stage at 9.30pm with the White brothers accompanied by a four piece backing band with a female vocalist on a few numbers. The brothers seemed genuinely pleased by the turnout. I recognised quite a few numbers from the new record but the new numbers from recent LP "Idiots" sustained the comparison pretty well with older songs. The show was marred by quite a few sound issues, the sound in the venue was really cavernous and Alex White seemed to be really struggling with his monitors. Thomas tried to cheer him up during the gig but he seemed to be really pissed off about it (things took a turn for the worse when Thomas pinched his brother's backside halfway through the gig). The backing did a great job, they all seem to be long time collaborators of ESP. It would definitely have been a mistake not coming to that gig and I highly recommend the purchase of their latest LP which is their best record to date.

LIVE REVIEW : LLOYD COLE AT UNION CHAPEL 17/10/2013

Back at Union Chapel  almost one year (save for a week) after the Michael Nesmith gig. The venue is definitely one of the nicest in London and is particularly well suited for solo singer songwriter gigs (Nick Lowe is playing a solo show there next march). Apart from a short reunion tour with The Commotions in 2004 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Rattlesnakes, Cole has been playing solo shows whether promoting new albums, archive releases or touring for the sake of it. I first saw him in 2009 in a small venue in Vienna called Cafe Szene. He had just released the 2 Folksingers LP's showcasing the solo performances he'd been doing for the past decade and a boxset of Out of print and unreleased songs called "Cleaning Out The Ashtrays". I remember a fine gig with a fine performance from Lloyd that was maybe missing a little bit in spontaneity in the interaction with the audience (some of the jokes are repeated from the live CD's) but that could be linked to the fact that the audience wasn't made up of English speakers. The songs were performed flawlessly though without as missed note in the whole set. Fast forward 3 years and Lloyd was touring Europe again but this time promoting a new album "Broken Record" and was touring with 2 guitar players (Matt Cullen and Mark Schwaber) billed as "The Small Ensemble". I had the chance to see that line-up playing in Rennes and again the gig was a flawless, perfect singing from LLoyd, immaculate guitar playing from all three. The set-list could have used a few more up-tempo numbers but a very good gig by all accounts. 

Which leads back at Union Chapel where Lloyd is playing solo again on the back of the release of his "Standards" LP. The gig sold out in July (maybe thanks to all the "return to form, best album since Rattlesnakes" reviews in the press) and another London date was announced for January 2014 but this time with a backing band. The show was pretty similar in format to the ones I had seen before. It was divided in 2 sets with a 30 mins break in the middle. There was quite a few tracks of Rattlesnakes (Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken, Perfect Skin, Forest Fire, 2CV). I was expecting more songs from "Standards" but Lloyd said that we would need to come to the full band show in January to hear most of the songs. We got a cover of "Chelsea Hotel" originally written and sung by Leonard Cohen. Lloyd seemed pleased with the audience reacted to the show (incredibly quiet by London standards) and even though he kept complaining about grooves on the tip of his fingers, his playing didn't suffer from it.

LIVE REVIEW : TONY JOE WHITE AT THE JAZZ CAFE 23/09/2013

Since buying Tony Joe White's "Live in Austin TX" album (which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND) a few years ago, I've always wanted to check out how he sounded in person. This gig at the Jazz Cafe in Camden was part of a small European he's currently doing to promote his latest LP "Hoodoo". The venue is quite small and seems to be White's regular venue when he stops in London as it was there he played when he last toured the UK in 2011. 

Even though his level of popularity is lower in the UK than in some other countries (France, The Netherlands), it was nice to see that the gig was sold out in advance. I managed to catch 2 songs from the opening act Boss Caine but that wasn't enough to make an opinion on his music (a bit of a "Johnny Cash" balladeer mood). Tony Joe White's touring set-up is a rather basic affair. Usually it's only him and his long term drummer Bryan "Cadillac" Owens (with sometime a keyboardist added to the line-up). The crowd at the Jazz Cafe was mainly long tern fans (spotted the actor Bill Nighy at the balcony), there's was still a decent amount of people under thirty which proves that White's music appeals also to a younger generation. He came on stage and played a couple of numbers just by himself before being joined by Owens. At 71 years old, White plays sitting down which added to his ever present Black Tuxedo and shades gives an definite "bluesman" appearance. 

Songs from the back catalogue were played at much slower tempos (the version of "Polk Salad Annie" from the "Live in Austin" LP sounds like The Buzzcocks compared to the one played at the Jazz Cafe). The newer tracks of "Hoodoo" are very slow and bluesy, so the whole set was pretty coherent with tracks from different LP's blending nicely with each other. White was quite generous on the number of old songs played. "Roosevelt And Ira Lee" from his second LP "... Continued" was aired but "Rainy Night In Georgia" (his most covered song) wasn't aired. Two of the songs he wrote for Tina Turner's "Foreign Affair" : "Undercover Agent For The Blues" and "Steamy Windows" bookended the set. There was quite a few technical glitches during the gig with Owens asking for more vocals in his monitors for a good half of the gig and a White's mike kept buzzing in between songs prompting him to tell the soundman in his laid-back drawl : "We need some help down here sir". In spite of this issues, White soldiered along playing lengthened out versions of his most famous songs showcasing his trademark Wah-Wah rave ups.

LIVE REVIEW : BRENDAN BENSON AT DINGWALLS 21/08/2013

 Back at Dingwalls for the second time this year (after the Geraint Watkins gig in March, just in case you start looking for the review it doesn't exist...). It was my third seeing him live. First time was a gig in a small town called Alencon in France during the "Alternative to Love" tour, the turnout was absolutely abysmal (80 people in the audience roughly) but the band was absolutely great and compensated the "inevitable" lack of enthusiasm due to playing in front of such a small audience with excellent musicianship and tightness. Second time was a different story. Playing to a packed "Nouveau Casino" in Paris 2009 (one hell of a shit sounding venue) thanks to his new-found rock celebrity as a member of "The Raconteurs", Mr Benson churned out a competent gig but something was missing and I found at the time that Mark Watrous wasn't on the same level as Dean Fertita that he was replacing on 2nd guitar/keyboard duties. I hadn't attented the tour promoting his latest LP "What Kind Of World" when it came out (partly due to the fact that no tour stop was in a 200 kms range from where I was living and also because on first listen that record was one hell of a disappointment for me). Nevertheless I welcomed the offer of another dose of Mr B live which might help me to revaluate the songs from his latest release.

Sonia and I were meeting up with our friend Chris and we made it inside the venue half way through the second opening act's set. After a really short break, Brendan and his band came on to a rather good welcome fron the crowd (he's definitely more popular in London than in Alençon...). Opening with two tunes from "What Kind Of World" : "Light Of The Day" and "Happy Most Of The Time", I was pleasantly surprised to see that in a live setting these songs gained the extra-oomph that's missing on the record. The Set-list relied quite heavily on "What Kind Of World" and "Lapalco". Only one measly tune from "Alternative To Love" and "My Old Familiar Friend". Nevertheless a welcome addition to the set was the addition of two songs from The Raconteurs ("Hands" and "Steady As She Goes"). Mark Watrous made a better impression on me than 4 years ago and so did Brad Pemberton the drummer. Brendan was his usual quiet self, not saying much between songs and even asking Watrous to imitate a Croatian promoter they had encountered during their travels (providing some much needed inbetween song banter). A good gig that could have benefited from a few extra songs from his back catlogues (gig lasted just over 1h15 mins)