Murray Lightburn
Opening was Lightburn of The Dears with just his acoustic guitar. To be perfectly honest I was a casual Dears fan at best, really liking the odd track and trying to get into them but not being able to otherwise. However this guy, stripped back, was strong. He admitted that he doesn't find his own guitar playing particularly good just functional enough to allow his songwriting and, most importantly, that excellent voice of his to be heard. It was like warm honey in the ears (that's a compliment). Playing mostly new tracks from the record he was plugging that he whined a few times wouldn't be out until the new year despite being done already because of the music industry, he did impress and fortunately the crowd paid him mind. Unassuming and appreciative of us it was an excellent display and I wish him the best and will keep an eye out for that album whenever it does drop.
Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah!
My partner was bugging me to go to this even before it was rescheduled and I wasn't opposed so off we went. Besides that, I really enjoyed The Tourist from last year (2017). It's interesting how a band goes from the hottest tip, with all the fallout of a perfect Pitchfork review, to playing to partly full small rooms in Kings Heath on a weeknight in a decade. In fact, a few years more than a decade since this was the ten year anniversary of their second record, Some Loud Thunder, which they were playing in full. To be honest, it's not all that strong and doesn't deserve the full-play treatment, though I could see it being afforded to the 10/10 (rated) self-titled debut. Anyhow we slogged through with only a couple of highlights like Satan Said Dance before they could actually open the set up. The singer, I'm pretty sure the only remaining original member but the owner of that signature nasal voice, was in a tattered suit, ugly shoes and a poorboy cap, while his band-for-hire mates were dressed normally and probably that decade younger than him (or perhaps the fame has been particularly hard on him?) There still weren't a lot of hits per se, but a group of girls nagged about Yellow Country Teeth until he finally relented/it came up in the setlist, and they came to the front to sing drunkenly before finally returning into the ether. I believe there was an encore but it didn't provide much more to get super excited about. With the first and last albums being head and shoulders above the rest, in this blogger's humble opinion, they were not paid nearly enough attention. So though the band were completely able and actually sounded pretty good the gig didn't leave a big impression overall. I should have spent the months between rescheduling listening up to the second disc I suppose.
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