07 August 2007 (gig)
13 August 2007
It’s been a bumper year for lovers of early 90’s Country tinged Americana. First a sell out date and a fabulous performance from the Lemonheads at Koko, and now a welcome return to London for alt-country troubadour Grant Lee Phillips; best known to those of a certain age as Grant Lee Buffalo. And very welcome it all seems too, as a relaxed GLP steps onto the stage to welcome applause from a packed crowd at Dingwalls.
There is clearly something in the water stateside, maybe it’s to do with the number of people and the size of the market, but there seems to be a place for proper singer-songwriters singing real songs. Somehow we don’t seem to foster them in quite the same way; you have to be radio friendly to survive this side of the pond.
GLP is a case in point: he has never toed the corporate line; his music and his voice have always been darkly powerful, and above all interesting. Tonight is no difference; starting electric he works through some of his more recent numbers to warm approval from the crowd. The strongest applause is reserved for the Grant Lee Buffalo numbers from early in his career; 'Jupiter and Teardrop' raises the roof, as does 'Mockingbirds'.
His act is highly interactive, bantering with the crowd between each song; at one point reducing the crowd to laughter with his riff on Paul McCartney’s new album being played on heavy rotation in every Starbucks in the World:
'What’s it called? Memory Almost Full? When I get that I just delete some of the rubbish. There’s a whole load of Wings stuff right there that he could start on!'
The warmth of the crowd is not lost on the performer; he mentions the artist once formerly not known as Prince, and in response to a heckle breaks into an improvised and highly scurrilous pastiche of Purple Rain; whilst the band look on in horror in case he expects them to join in. He segues this into an anecdote about how he wanted to prepare a cover for the tour, but couldn’t decide on Gram Parsons or the Pixies, before giving us half of 'Wave of Mutilation' country style. He’s enjoying this, and so are we.
The set ends with 'Fuzzy' to rapturous applause, but that’s not enough for any of us. Two encores follow, the first a virtuoso performance of 'Lonestar Song', all crashing distorted guitar and heart breaking vocals, and the second an acoustic cover of the Cure’s 'Boy’s don’t Cry'. Time’s up, and the house lights come on: but the audience know they’ve been part of something special tonight, and so do the band. When GLP reappears and stands chatting with the audience and shaking hands at the end of the gig, he looks satisfied with his lot. And so he should be; top marks for a great performance, Tuesday nights don’t get much better than this.
