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Graham Coxon 14/05/2009


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Graham Coxon 14/05/2009

OK, sorry about the huge gaps here, and the missing gigs, but I am poor, and assuming there's no-one as really cares anyways :P I'm afraid this one is also a bit of an album review as well as gig, for a fairly obvious reason...

This gig was too big a chance for me to pass on - probably my favourite famous person, and indeed musician, playing at an awesome (small) venue, playing his entire new album "The Spinning Top". The venue was the Thekla, which I'm sure I waxed lyrical about already, but that had a different feel, it wasn't sold out last time for a start! This gig was acoustic too, so made it feel lots more intimate.

The support was pretty cool, I've forgotten the name (and he said he is usually the singer in a band as opposed to usually a singer songwriter), but he played some cool acoustic songs, with nice riffs and a good voice.

Graham Had a backing band, a drummer and bassist anyway, the bassist having an electric double bass for most of it - very cool. As the new album is quite folky and acoustic, that was most of the gig, but it was nice to see Graham whip out the electric guitar and rawk away for some of it - it wouldn't be a Coxon album without it!

The first few songs are nice acoustic finger picked things, had me wishing I could finger pick better. There's something special about Coxon's voice, a little thin and not too strong sometimes, but it fits his style perfectly, it always makes me smile, whether it's a sad or happy! On board the good ship Thekla, being up close and personal (almost close enough to lick!) really added to the already special feel of the album. Graham seemed to have an odd effect on the crowd, everyone seemed to get very giggly (I'll confess I did too), laughed at all his jokes, indeed, at all his comments, right up to the point he asked 'So, you all going out to a discotheque afterwards?', after we had chuckled away, he seemed a little confused and said 'That wasnot a joke, you know, it was a question!'

It was my first listen to any of the new material, and I wasn't quite sure what to expect, and it is certainly different from his last record ("Love Travels At Illegal Speeds") which was very much a punky piece, full of energy. In fact The Spinning Top is more like a return to his first few albums stylewise, but better. His first albums are something of an aquired taste, and certainly don't demonstrate the songwriting skills he has obviously developed in the 10+ years since his first solo work. One example of this is 'In The Morning' 8+ minutes of somewhat perculiar sounding catchy happy.

'If You Want Me' was the first song he brought out the Telecaster, it has a nice, the first half of the song is clean and quiet, and not knowing the song, it was a real kick when he slipped on the overdrive and effects and it all went grungy and nasty (in the good way). The only problem with the song I had was that I had the 'why so serious?' meme from the last Batman film brought to the front of my mind by the chorus 'It's all so ser-ri-ous', which distracted me somewhat! This kinda rawky burble of a song ended and we were told 'This next song is about bunny rabbits and fishes. Trying to make babies on the riverbank. There really are rabbitfish out there, you can google them when you get home'. I regretted doing that - real rarbbitfish are hideous! nothing like the cutesy image I got, especially after listening to the song, as it is an example of Graham's odd skill with getting away with the silliest lyrics, and indeed music.

"Out of the tree and into the sea, swam my perfect love for thee"

C'mon! But some how, with the fun, happy little guitar riff, and a kickass sax solo (performed by Graham himself - he's something of a multi instrumentalist, having played all the instruments for the recording of all but his latest album), it is just a silly happy summery song.

The rest of the set started to get a little confusing as the album progressed, as the last half of the album seems to switch between electric and acoustic pretty much every song, and with 'Caspian Sea' hitting you in the face with an actually somewhat annoying repeatative rawk for a little to long at roughly the halfway point, it felt a little odd. It did make a bit more sense when I listened to the album, and found out that it has a backing concept - it is meant to follow a boys life from birth to death, which somewhat explains the confusion in places - who isn't confused a lot?!

The end was reached far too soon for me, and the encore was a little odd, as it was two songs, both excellent. However, the last song on the album has a slightly funeral dirge in the background, and that combined with the last song being dedicated to a musician who had died last year (I'm afraid I didn't know, and don't remember, the name :s), led to a slightly odd elated-yet-sad feeling as I walked away.

Overall a great gig, a really special experience. I can't wait for his full electric tour that is apparently coming in the Autumn, as while I love his acoustic side, the punk side of Graham is essential to the mix, and is guarranteed to be a fun gig!

Sadly the only upcoming gig now is Blur, and I will not have regular internet access by then, so that review may be a while. It will be an awesome gig though, it can't really fail at that!

Providing everything works out well in September with my new job, usual gig levels should hopeful return then! :D

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