Thursday: Jeffrey Lewis and Los Bolts at Wharf Chambers
I've seen Jeffrey Lewis loads of times, and I've never seen him play a bad show, so rather than boring everyone with the details of set lists and the proportion of new songs:old songs, I'll concentrate on the important things, such as the atmosphere of the venue, the quality of the support, and the grumpiness of the sound tech.
The Wharf Chambers makes a decent venue. I liked its air of general leftiness and lack of advertising, in a bit of Leeds which is mostly bistros and bars nowadays. In fact, I liked it so much I
bought the company joined as a member (it's a co-op, and only members and guests can get in, so I didn't really have a choice). It's the sort of place where people meet and plot revolutions, or at least imagine that they do. Decent beer, too, pretty cheap, and only ten minutes from the station.
The first support was the house band, whose name I've forgotten. The tickets advertised someone called Mush, but I'm sure they said something else. Probably just as well that they remain anonymous - it seemed to be pitched somewhere between performance poetry and utter shite. Imagine a middle-aged Rik from the Young Ones backed by a bad Fall covers band. Mind you, it may have been a slow builder of a set, as they were making a right racket by the end, when we were having a smoko out in the beer garden.
Second up - probably Downdime. Again, we only lasted a couple of songs. If you put a woman centre stage with a microphone and don't let her sing, then it's bound to lead to disappointment, and that was the least of their crimes. I survived Britpop, and the scars really never healed, I'm not going through that again. Some decent gurning from the bassist, and that was the highlight of their set.
The performance area is a converted storeroom at the back of the venue, but I was pleased that it was fairly easy to get some sort of view of the headliners. Top gurning from the new drummer with cool hair (it started out as a quiff but was a fringe by the end of the show), but not a lot from Los Bolts, thought it was advertised as a double-header with her and Jeff Lewis. We thought the sound tech had forgotten to switch on her mic. She was good when she eventually made herself heard.
It was a decent mix of quiet songs and loud numbers, with a rap-tastic spoken word encore including a bonkers version of Heroin for the modern age. That was probably even better than his Sonnet Youth project where he made a sonnet of every Sonic Youth song (though thankfully he only performed one per show). He's a ferociously independent performer, I can't wait till he's back. Hopefully with better t-shirts, as you'd expect from a comic book artist. Pick it up, Jeff!
