Jeffrey Lewis and Peter Stampfel, The Waiting Room, Eaglescliffe
I've just ridden back - it was an early finish, but even though the venue is next to Eaglescliffe station, the last train from Eaglescliffe is 22.05 (there is a later train, but it doesn't stop at Eaglescliffe), and I was outta there by 22.15, so rather than wait around for the connection to Thornaby and back to Darlo, I rode the 13 miles, which isn't a bad distance after a gig. And knowing there was a possibility I'd have to ride kept my beer intake down.
The venue was tiny - it was a sell-out, whatever that meant, as no-one asked me for a ticket (probably for the best, as it didn't arrive in the post, and when I called up the other day, they said they'd just check my name on the door). It was a tiny 80-capacity conservatory at the back of the restaurant, with corrugated plastic roofing, ancient maps on the wall, and bits of old carousel fairing nailed above the stage. A vegetarian restaurant on Teesside - home of the
Parmo - is always going to be a tough sell, but quirkiness seemed to be the order of the day, which suited the cult status of both performers (a theme which informs a lot of Jeff's songs).
A lovely, intimate gig. It served - for me, at least - as an introduction to Peter Stampfel, the Fugs, and the Holy Modal Rounders, as the set consisted of a few Jeff Lewis songs but mainly songs Peter Stampfel wrote and performed with his bands The Holy Modal Rounders and the Fugs, in the ferment of the 60s folk scene, interspersed with chat between the two where PS played the stoned jester and JL his attentive, slightly stern son.
It ended with a series of covers - Norman Greenbaum's "Spirit in the Sky" worked much better played for laughs as "Demon in the Ground", and the Holy Modal Rounders' Birdsong (which I vaguely remembered from the movie Easy Rider) morphed into a loopy cover of Surfin' Bird. Crass's "Systematic Death" had the joint bouncing.
I've had a look at the line-up The Waiting Room has - Martin Carthy and Sweet Babou are playing there within the next month. So I'll probably be back. There was, however, a moment of aching bathos where Jeff Lewis looked around the tiny room, commented on the decor, and asked who was the next act to play there, and the reply came back in broad North Eastern:
Wilf Lunn the inventor off the telly.