Review:'Nina Antonia & The Lunar Moths' 'Live at Farsight Collective Gallery, St Giles.'
- Genre: 'Spoken Word'
- Release Date: '18.6.26.'
Our Rating:
This show was the launch event for Dropping Like Butterflies the debut album by Nina Antonia & The Lunar Moths who are the new group of legendary musicians who have helped legendary New York Dolls/Johnny Thunders biographer Nina Antonia set a collection of 12 of her poems to some rather gorgeous elegiac music. The Lunar Moths performing with her at this event were Chris Musto (Iggy Pop, Johnny Thunders, Bermondsey Joyriders), James Hallawell (Waterboys, Peter Holsapple) and Neal X (Sigue Sigue Sputnik, The Loveless with Marc Almond, The Dirty Strangers). The album also featured Rory McCloud, Allegra Shock, Laura Anstee, Kenny Jones, Armen Ra, Jim Lowe, Phil Bloomberg and Mike Scott, several of whom were among the star-studded audience, who were wandering around the Farsight gallery looking at the art on the walls and of course people watching and hanging out.
Eventually we were all invited into the main space for the launch, that featured Neal X welcoming us before Nina, who was seated, imperiously intoned Shell-Shocked And Shoeless, Dropping Like Butterflies opening poem, over the stark minimalist backing of the Lunar Moths, Chris Musto's stripped back percussion a perfect bed, for the gentle keyboards James Hallawall added, while I wondered if Nina had any baseball references, hidden within this poem dedicated to the Deadcuts and Senseless Things legend Mark Keds who sadly died a couple of years ago, leaving memories of many magical nights behind him. Nina made clear how much Mark meant to her at the end of the piece.
Nina took us into the dark places inhabited in The Undertaker's Lunch Break where he can take a breath or two in-between his dark duties, with Neal's atmospheric ambient guitar weaving around the soft keys and minimal percussion leaving plenty of room for us to reflect on the memories and moments captured within this poem. Both Chris and Neal were joking that Joe Dallesandro was based on a Bo Diddley beat and they wanted us to all join in, after the first round of the chant of Little Joe's name they came to a halt, the lack of monitors had meant one of them missed a cue, so they went back to be beginning of this mantra like piece, that sounds like it should herald a re-imagining of Lou Reeds rap about Little Joe on Take No Prisoners.
Neal introduced Here Is Dusk that saw James keys sounding a lot like James Young's playing with Nico, being the central musical motif that Neal's guitar parts played around, while Nina slowly told us how drowsy she felt at dusk, conjuring up a wonderfully dark atmosphere. The Faithful Muses saw another change of guitars for this dark litany of the heroes and villains that have populated Nina's life, her Faithful Muses ensure she could wander through life's more eclectic and interesting spaces and survive the dangers within.
After encouraging us all to buy Dropping Like Butterflies from Richard England at the merch stand, either on vinyl or cd after the show, they closed this short set with Luna Moths a very beat poem in praise of every important influence from Allen Ginsburg and Mary Millington to Joe Orton through Ossie Clarks designs and Nico's quip that she'd rather do drugs than go crazy, wanting to live like Johnny Thunders, all of whom ended up with greater acclaim in death than they had received in life, this was a magnificent tour de force end to a very cool set.
All that was left was of course to carry on hanging out and enjoying the art while buying the highly recommended album that is out now on Creation Youth.
Find out more at https://cadizmerchstore.com/collections/all/products/nina-antonia-the-lunar-moth-dropping-like-butterflies
