Having heard good things about FUTUR PRIMITIF (Daniel Lefkowitz, solo tonight but sometimes with various members of The Low Anthem) I made sure I got into the Lexington in time to catch his opening set at this sold out Monday Night show.
Well The Lexington now serves bottles of Original Sin Hard Cider which seems to be the perfect drink for a night of Country and Americana. A pity Futur Primitif isn't the perfect opener. His guitar sounds like it's about to die for most of the set. I'm not sure if it's his inputs or the cable but it has a nasty buzzing sound on it, if that's intentional then it just adds to his annoyance factor.
The first song about Neil Armstrong was OK if rather too bland. I missed a bit as I had to nip outside when my phone rang, but came back and he was still competently strumming away.
He then did a very fourth rate Dylan impression that in places was good but overall just reminds me why Dylan is Dylan. It was followed by his best song by far, Machine Teeth, which was really all I would have needed to hear from him and the only time he showed any glimmer as to why he's being tipped so strongly.
After moaning about his bus trip from Glasgow with a family of pukers he did a Low Anthem cover of Going Up Town that doesn't make me want to hear the original as it was wimpy and mewling and pretty boring. The last song of his set wasn't much better. He might be worth seeing with more of a band behind him but on this showing that's doubtful.
Next on were THE LUCKY STRIKES who are straight out of the mean old Essex Delta and look like they could have been the house band at The Cock in Matching Tye: one of those pubs I really hope is still going strong.
Either way, they made the place wake up and get going with a superb set of Essex Country rock opening with a song about Someone who will do anything to have the song's singer. It's a great hoe down of a song that they follow with The Butcher and Mrs. Shaw about, er, a butcher called Ruben. It was good fun and damn they can't half play.
Then they got to a song about a subject close to my heart, The Beast Burnt Down, about the fires that destroyed or nearly destroyed Sarfend pier, leaving it as a partially burnt out hulk sticking out halfway to Canvey Island. Those views of the Oil Refineries that made my childhood trips there so special, that and those days when the tide was far enough out for you to walk out in the estuary almost as far as the end of the world's Longest pier in the mud. Ah happy days and a quite brilliant song as well and no mention of Peter Pan's playground and all the prostitutes and dealers hanging round there. Maybe they're too young to remember that sordid scene. Or is it in another song?
The hoe down continued on a song about The Angel Gabriel who thankfully wasn't found face down drunk outside the Pink Toothbrush. Still, the tale of the Ghost And The Actress that followed it was pretty damn good. They built the set nicely towards the end with (I think it was) Coldspring which in this cold year is about right before finishing with a song about being there for his love. A great support set from a band that are well worth seeing live and the band's latest album The Exile And The Sea on Harbour Song records is surely worth investigating.
With the place suitably warmed up it wasn't long until HURRAY FOR THE RIF RAFF came on. They are in the middle of their current Irish, Scottish and English tour ahead of a full American and Canadian tour in the summer. These dates are all precursors of the band's next album which will hopefully be out sometime soon and once again will be on the wonderful http://www.losemusic.com">Loose Music.
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They opened with an instrumental just to get things going before going into a great version of Look Out Mama which was one of the songs that won me over the first time I saw them last September. Alynda Lee Segarra's voice has a wonderful, lived in quality to it that just helps to bring out the emotion in the lyrics. Slow Walk featured some great fiddle playing from Yosi Perlstein. I think I Know You was next but either way they were as bewitching as last time.
Junebug Waltz was guaranteed to get a few couples dancing and it came with a dedication to a fan who had given Alynda a written request for it!! Ode To John & Yoko was nice and melancholic and should have got them an invite to Yoko's Meltdown Festival but sadly didn't. We then got a rather good new song, that shows they are more than ready for the new album. Alynda introduced Small Town Heroes as having been inspired by John Prine and it's a great heartbreaking song about being slung out and going in search of Love and a better life.
That was followed with a song about Outlaws that saw some great double bass playing by Dan Cutler. I think it was about this point in the set that Yosi swapped places with Sam Doores to allow Sam to come out from behind the drums and play a little geetar on what I think was another new song about a crash, he was certainly on the Guitar for what Alynda introduced as being a surf song but didn't sound like the Ventures or Beach Boys to me.
I was surprised by the first cover of the set, a very touching interpretation of Cathy's Clown: a damn cool version but unexpected, it was followed by St Roch Blues about the bands adopted hometown of New Orleans before Alynda asked us if we knew who Fred Neil was? Of course we did! They proceeded with a very cool version of Everybody's Talking that would have been enough to put a smile on Midnight Cowboy anti-hero Ratso's face for sure. They closed the set with a song I have down as Bow Town but may well be something entirely different.
They got a great reception and were soon back for an encore that opened with Alynda playing Little Black Star solo before the rest of the band joined her to play a song they learnt from oldies radio they did a very cool and slow country version of Be My Baby before Alynda picked up her Knitting Needles to help her play Fiddlesticks on Yosi's fiddle while it was being played. This was a cool end to a great set and a damn good Monday night show.
Hopefully they will be back when the new album is out and if the current tour goes anywhere near you they are well worth seeing live.
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