message board

Michael · Joined: 18 Nov 2005 Posts: 133

Just a quick word about the cool show last night!!

Complete with new beard, Jeff rattled through a whole bunch of quieter acoustic songs - many of which were new.

The set list included all the ones from the Birmingham show that Adam mentioned in his thread (minus the Brer Brian song, obviously, and Back When I was 4, sadly) plus a few more. The song about the pig was a real highlight! As were the three videos (Hand, Communism, Brain) which he performed with a weird tape backing (of himself, I think, talking and "interacting" with the real Jeff). Not sure whether that was entirely successful (or necessary).

He played another new song which reminded me a bit of John Cooper Clark's "I Married an Alien From Outer Space". He said someone in Ireland had stolen the lyric sheet so he was struggling to remember it all.

I chatted to him beforehand about his Crass covers album - I still can't believe that when I was 12 or 13 (in 1979 - yup, I'm that old) Crass were my favourite band, and now I'm 40 one of my current favourite artists is doing a tribute to them. I also can't believe how well those old Crass songs work when Jeff does them. Anyway, at the end of the set he mentioned our chat and played Crass's "Big A Little A", which was fantastic.

The supports were Yorkshire perennials Benjamin Wetherill and David Thomas Broughton. Jeff was clearly very impressed by both of them, humbly suggesting that it was tough to follow such talented guys.

The crowd went wild for Wetherill - but I've never been able to see his appeal. Too English and mannered for my tastes. And possibly the first time I've been to an anti-folk gig where an act has performed Irving Berlin and Nat King Cole songs alongside standard "fol-di-rol" trad folk songs like "John Barleycorn". Later on in Jeff's set, he did add some cool banjo bits on "Roll Bus Roll" and "Don't Get Upset" though, so props to him for that.

Broughton was more interesting with his weird loops and bizarre onstage antics. Bits of Bonnie Prince Billy and Leonard Cohen lyrics were decipherable amidst all the human beatbox stuff and weird backing vocals. He reminded me of a geekier, slightly more eccentric Moby. Kinda.

So all in all another great Jeff Lewis show.

Erm , when's he touring again????

tomic · Joined: 10 Aug 2006 Posts: 16 Location: UK

I'd agree with Michael that that was a great evening's entertainment. I didn't even have any of the niggles he found - I liked Wetherill (no such thing as too English for me - or too anywhere else for that matter) and I thought the live Jeff/taped Jeff thing worked well.

I haven't seen him live before and I was kind of surprised he was so charming on stage. There was some nice audience interaction - almost turning Seattle into a singalong - and it was one of those nights where you just feel all warm and fuzzy and happy afterwards even though I had to walk for 40 mins in the drizzle to get home (I was a bit out with my estimate of 15 minutes).