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Cardiff live

 
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Sun Sep 29, 2019 11:44 pm    Post subject: Cardiff live Reply with quote

I swung down to the Cardiff gig this week, it was a great night.
The set list was a good mix of the old and new, with the documentary videos, poetry, a tribute to the late Daniel J and an appearance of brother Jack on some songs. They sounded good.
Jeff was lovely as always, putting up with all my autistic weirdness and making me smile.
And I treated myself to the new JL A/W 2019 Collection in the form of a t-shirt.
Happy days!
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jefflewis



Joined: 21 Nov 2005
Posts: 1485

PostPosted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

So great to see you! Thanks for coming.
Here's an official review of that gig, in a Cardiff paper... they're a bit critical, but still give it 4 stars.
https://www.buzzmag.co.uk/jeffrey-lewis-the-voltage-quiet-marauder-live-review/
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jefflewis



Joined: 21 Nov 2005
Posts: 1485

PostPosted: Tue Oct 01, 2019 7:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

And, actually, these are my own personal notes on the Cardiff gig, sometimes I keep this sort of thing like a tour-diary... Of course my own sense of it being a not-great-gig is highly subjective, somebody in the audience might have a different opinion. This is just based on how it sounded from where i was standing!

Didn’t feel like a great show. First song should bring them in, but the vocal was horribly loud, from where I was standing, made it hard to sing, and maybe it sounded horrible in the room, didn’t get a sense that it was being appreciated as normal.
Just felt like the talking was somehow off-base, wrong attitude. Explained the Birdies melody origin, but it seemed to fall flat and lessen the song rather than make it more interesting.
I guess Walls was okay but Jack went to the high octave immediately at the end, I just meant it for the second half of the end. Maybe too herky-jerky doing all the different styles then right into the video.
Then the video had awkward intro where i talked about Elba, but again sort of fell flat, because it was apropos of nothing.
At least the crowd cheered for the king’s execution, some energy.
Do What Comes Natural, I guess it was fine.
Arrow it sounded to me like there was no keyboard in the mix, which annoyed me, and then I fucked up the swap to the strummed part, left the gain pedal on for the first strum. At least the distortion was cranked good and loud for the end. But then that threw off the distortion level for the rest of the set.
Cross = Jack should have done more piano, it sounded empty and a bit pointless without that, and i didn’t feel like my solos were very interesting. Then Jack’s bass distortion was way too loud, it’s always pointless to have distortion eating up the ending anyway, and tonight it felt especially bad and excessive.
Punk History - I guess it was good. Fine. Just starting to feel overplayed since we already did it last night in Cambridge, two nights in a row is too much. Distortion pedal maybe too loud.
Scientist = fine, but maybe I should have talked between Punk History and Scientist, it was maybe an awkward attitude change.
Thunderstorm - mostly okay but I can’t hear Brent’s vocal so I don’t know if it’s in there, then I fucked up the ending a bit, my loop was a liiiittle bit off somehow, then I accidentally left the gain pedal on when i went back to strumming, bleh. There’s a lot that has to work right in order for this song to work live, and tonight it didn’t all work.
Pigeon - it was fine, but an awkward attitude switch again. Plus, 2 anti-bird songs.
Time Machine - a little pointless, we don’t have the punk energy to put it over on pure enthusiasm as in the old days, but the song isn’t much of a song to be impressive if we’re not super into it. Then I fucked up the guitar lead line at the end, cuz the overdrive pedal wasn’t loud enough to cut through.
Golden Arm - again, sort of pointless, would have been weird for newcomers to hear if they weren’t nostalgic about it, plus Brent did the drum breakdown in the wrong part. Jack put on the horrible bass loud distortion randomly and it was an obvious mistake. Played it off okay enough, but still.
Twilight Zone - it was fun to play, pulled it off pretty good, tho it probably just confused the audience, like, what is this song. Jack wanted to play it, so we learned it in soundcheck and did it.
LPs - Threw this in to try to salvage the end of the set, but I even messed up a line. Just one of those nights where things go wrong.
Red Hand - okay. fine. sort of random, again.
Chelsea - my intro didn’t quite work, nothing’s really landing or clicking right. The rest of the song was okay.
To Be Your Man - played it too fast, and fucked up some of the chords. I dunno about keeping this one for gigs, a number of very awkward lines.
My Life is Starting Over Again - unprepared, not a great tribute, not a very good explanation and then i didn’t play a great version, skipped a verse.
All over a mediocre less-than-great gig.
(luckily, our next and final tour gig, on Elba island, was fantastic, so we came back to NYC on a very high note, feeling proud of ourselves!)
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Wed Oct 02, 2019 11:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

As someone in the crowd I can safely say that none of that came across to me! Glad you have a good trip and gig to finish stuff off and I hope you are enjoying being home and getting lots of sleep. Does the man still scream? I imagine you come home in massive sleep debt x
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jefflewis



Joined: 21 Nov 2005
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PostPosted: Fri Oct 04, 2019 12:14 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Yes, massive sleep debt is correct... then we did an 8-hour recording session yesterday! Because I wanted to capture what the songs sound like when Jack plays with us, a lot of stuff sounds cool to me in the 4-piece band arrangements and Jack is only in NYC for a short time, so I wanted to record with him and Mem and Brent as much as I could, right after coming home from tour! But the lack of sleep and the 8-hour session were finally too much for me... now I'm sick! However, it's quite lucky that I'm not on tour. Being sick on tour sucks! That used to happen to me ALL the time on my early tours... for years I got sick for a few days on EVERY tour, sore throat, sniffles, sometimes almost too sick to perform (but I don't think I ever cancelled a gig! I remember a TERRIBLE gig in Evreaux France around 2003 when I really couldn't hardly sing, Jack sang most of the songs...). But eventually I guess i learned how to pace myself a bit better, not scream so much in the loud songs, and nowadays I don't get sick on tour very often. Also, in the early days I used to break strings a lot, from hitting the guitar too hard! Now it still happens, but not so much. I have learned to be a bit more gentle, on myself and on my guitar!
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misshelenc



Joined: 23 Nov 2007
Posts: 943
Location: Cardiff, Wales, UK

PostPosted: Wed Oct 30, 2019 6:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I hope you’re better now Jeff. I find illness is rarely convenient in the adult world, we all have somewhere to be and stuff to do. But on tour must be awful as you can’t help it but people are still there to see you and you have to try and sound good for them but sometimes that’s impossible. Hope you’ve caught up on the sleep too. It gets dark in the uk at half four in the afternoon now, evenings are happily spent with the heating on, a cat on my lap and a good book! Talking of books I found a suicide book in the library, while looking at the health books, so I’m going to read that next. It’s called A Very Human Ending. I am not sure of the authors nationality but he works in New Zealand now I think. Maybe it will be a bit like the one you read that I can’t get hold of. I’m such a morbid person with a dark sense of humour that taboo stuff in general interests me. Probably watched too much Louis Theroux and documentaries on serial killers! I love a good analysis of a subculture. Not that dying of suicide is a subculture, maybe that’s more being suicidal, if you join groups and talk to people online about it etc.
The other day I was ironing a JL T-shirt while listening to JL band. Not sure why I need to publish that on the internet! I’ve been playing a few of the older albums lately in preparation for the new one turning up in the next month. It made me think how the Cardiff setlist this time didn’t focus on the big hits of the band, it was the most obscure JL gig I’ve been to. Not a criticism, I loved it, just an observation.
Hope you are well again x
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