OFF: Woronzow All-Dayer review (long)

[Jon Jarrett]

        Dear All,
                  haven't yet forwarded this review I wrote to BOC-L which
is silly considering at least some of you here will be interested which is
probably more than the local Rock Society were... featuring Adrian Shaw,
Pete Pavli, Tony Hill, Nick Saloman, Rod Goodway and other tangential
nearly-Hawks...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2003 23:46:10 +0100 (BST)
From: Jon Jarrett <jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk>
Subject: Gigs I been to lately, four of some

        Well, you know, someone tell me to stop, but meanwhile:

Woronzow All-Dayer, The Standard, Walthamstow, 19/07/03

        I had left late, but I timed it well, as I walked in the door of
the Standard just in time to put my bag down as Outskirts of Infinity took
the stage. Outskirts of Infinity have not gigged properly for about ten
years now though some version of them was at the Bevis Frond Valedictory
All-Dayer with Nick "Bevis Frond" Saloman trying to remember their songs
from when he played bass for them and a stand-in drummer. As the point of
the band is more or less the guitar player, Bari Watts, that didn't seem
at all bad to me, but this time a proper line-up which will be gigging
again soon was playing and it was a different animal to that loose Band-
of-Gypsies-like performance.

        My notes read "`eavy; lots of `fling'; little rehearsal; Bari
several kinds of guitarist; weird dynamics w/ bass player ignoring
Bari; drummer plays music". And I stand by every word! No, seriously. The
way Bari was playing varied from song to song. Some songs they played with
a strong guitar part; they opened with the Bevis Frond's `Eyes In The Back
Of My Head' and that had a lot of screaming riff; but some songs were
almost entirely rhythm-section driven with Bari just generating
stratospherics while the others actually played the tune. That seemed the
optimal combination to me, as they actually could carry a set by
themselves if need be; Ric Gunther has a big kit with two floor toms and
would occasionally drop into a kind of Kodo-like thing with them and the
bass player also made a lot of well-placd noise; they drove hard and
fast. Bari was fantastic, but very often almost irrelevant to the song,
only there to unscrew the top of your head to let them get through to your
spine more easily. I was singing along with the bass for a lot of it, as
he moved off the bassline in ways I found it easy to predict but also
enjoyed a great deal as he hardly stayed on it where he didn't have to. He
was also, as I say, apparently ignoring Bari most of the time; there were
several patches where Bari came over and stared at the bass for a bit
before going back to his side of the stage, as if he was trying to work
out what the bassist was playing, but they never seemed to change what
they were doing, either of them, as a result of this. Couldn't figure that
one out.

        About half the set was covers, so I got down a list of
sorts; there was `Eyes In The Back Of My Head' as I said, then they played
`Lord of the Dark Skies' which was fantastic, and almost unrecognisable in
this form from when I last heard it now it had a shape at the bottom
too; `Tales of Brave Ulysses' (Bari did a sterling Clapton impression
here, which is to say he was less interesting than usual, but it was a bit
rough all the same), an Arthur Lee cover whose name I didn't catch which
went on for a good while, a thing of their own called `Jupiter Jam' which
led off into a long drum-led breakdown during which Bari paused to bum a
fag (American-speakers please doubletake) off one of the audience before
joining in again and it didn't matter at all, `Stoned Crazy', a little
short number to wind up at maximum pace. They were still a little rough
but shining with talent under the polish they were acquiring even as they
played. If they gig near you, see them.

        Next up was Adam Goldman, from a US Band called Thebrotheregg. He
was doing a solo set with an acoustic guitar and what he thought was
original observations about how strange the UK seems to Americans. I was
not impressed by him and took the set to get beer, which I hadn't been
able to do so rapidly had OoI come on, then get money and buy six CDs at
once for £45.00.

        After them was Fiction, Tony Hill's band which was more or less
what I was there for. Dean the bass-player had acquired some circular
purple shades and thus looked even more completely like Ozzy than he
already had. He is the ideal guitarist's bass-player, unintrusive, regular
but there to play around when that's wanted. Drummer still underwhelming
but competent. Tony seems to look younger every time, and from the
transformation that having the music flow through him seems to make I
could well believe he'll be back into his forties by the time they get an
album out. There was dry ice and smoke, it was much more like a real gig
than last time I saw them.

        They opened with `Right Now Forever', followed it up with a recent
creation which may be called `Come And See Me', a new one entitled
`Subject', `Conscious Accident', and `But There Again', this last with
extra jam. Then `Could Have Been', which was destroyingly dark; when the
end of the world is announced it will be done in Tony Hill's voice. Then,
for the last number Dean stepped off the stage and was replaced by none
other than Pete Pavli, and they did `Death Warmed Up', for the first time
since gods know when. Last time I saw Fiction Tony was saying he wouldn't
do High Tide stuff any more, because he didn't feel that way any more and
it would kill the songs off; he seemed to find something in this one he
could enjoy, it was great. Shaky in the changes, it's a complex song, but
still great. I nabbed Dean afterwards and managed to extract a signed CD
from him, and gathered that this surprise had been Adrian Shaw's doing,
and that he'd contacted Simon House as well but that Mr House would have
none of the idea. Bah. Oh well. That would have just about killed me
and Kirsten would have been very jealous, so maybe it's as well. They
instead had a second guitarist, one John Perry, but he never really got
out of mid-range riffing and I'm not at all sure why they bothered. At
least he didn't actually hurt the moment, but he was no substitute for a
violin.

        Next up was Anton Barbeau, another American popster though this
one slightly more interesting, mostly because he had the Bevis Frond as
backing band, but also just through quality of his material. Nick and
Adrian hardly knew some of the material but it really didn't show, because
they're both really good musicians; Anton himself seemed to be playing his
personality more than anything else, coming over very quirky cheerful
gum-chewing social commentator. Some of his lyrics were quite good but I
eventually decided he was achieving this by observing things in such
detail that by changing perspective he could suddenly bring a whole new
light onto something; a good technique, but we shouldn't be surprised at
seeing the rest of the world when we step away from the microscope
really. I wrote: "engaging but not excellent; a possible instance of the
failure of Woronzow discernment?"

        Setlist, as most of it was introduced, I can tell you was as
follows, at least some of it from his album with Nick and Ade, _King of
Missouri_: Dark Fade/ King of Missouri/ ?/ I Remember Everything [I did
quite like this one actually]/ Check's In the Mail [whereas this was a bit
boring]/ I Don't Like You [simple, to the point]/ Swamp Man [apparently
about George Dubya, though as he said he had to explain this because there
was no way to tell from the lyrics].

        I think next time I shall pay more attention to him, but this time
I was instead trying to scam a Fiction CD (which I now have with all three
signatures), and capture Ade Shaw, which I did not yet achieve.

        Meanwhile, chairs were placed all across the front of the stage,
and I rapidly understood that Rod Goodway's Ethereal Counterbalance was
about to happen. The way this works is that the erstwhile Magic Muscle
frontman, now not terribly well and rather more contemplative after
hepatitis which has him on the list for a liver transplant, gathers
everyone he can find, gets them on stage and sets them going. The
competence of the musicians sometimes makes this quite stunning in a
slow-moving evolving beautiful way and Goodway can improvise words which
fit with this mood easily; sometimes it's just tedious. This time they got
away with it. The simplest way to review it is just to type up my notes,
as there was (is always) only one `song', which goes on for twenty
minutes plus, it's difficult to sum up.

        Line-up, for a start, was, left to right, Joe Turner (late of
Abunai!) on electric mandolin and delay pedal, Paul Simmons (Alchemysts,
Bevis Frond) on guitar, Pete Pavli on bass, Adrian Shaw on bass, Rod
Goodway on voice, some unknown kid playing acoustic percussion of a few
sorts, John Perry on guitar, Nick Salomon on guitar and Keith Christmas on
guitar. Enough to fill a stage. Of all this I wrote:

            "Shaw starts first no., Simmons and Goodway mostly make it to
    start well but it builds--the uke player likes *bad* feedback--he is
    is *wrong*; shape loses three or so minutes in, Shaw rescues it as
    ever; Christmas starts to turn out really rather beautiful; uke
    feedback turned to space noise with delay; Salomon unmistakable but
    everyone finds room--Pavli and Shaw have half the riff each and both
    improve it every time for a bit--Goodway knows about mortality of
    course but I know he does of course--and the bass stops, now will
    everyone else? Instead a building crescendo and slowly--but comes to a
    stop as Shaw picks up on percussion--noise but how far? No. Simmons
    picks up but percussion isn't strong enough and it comes to a slow
    stop which itself goes on for some minutes."

        That last riff Adrian set up could have turned into a spacerock
juggernaut if only enough people had picked it up, but it was all rather
pretty anyway. Christmas especially surprised me, and set my expectations
for his set rather high. A success, but not by much but luck and Adrian
and Paul sometimes managing to turn the thing slightly.

        I then managed to capture Adrian and Nick in short order to get
Kirsten's CD signed and meanwhile the Lucky Bishops took the stage. I've
never quite got The Lucky Bishops. They're all very talented, and they
play very well together, but the songs, which are quite chunky British
guitar-pop, don't get me. I think they've missed the Britpop boom which
might have picked them up by then years at least and will never achieve
very much, and while I'm glad they exist in some way I wish they'd do
something more interesting. But hey, if they're happy. I spent most of the
set talking to the photographer for Nik Turner's Space Ritual whom I'd
correctly spotted, but we couldn't hear very much of what either one said
and I can't say I was much wiser for the experience. This meant that all
my missions were accomplished however and now I could enjoy the sets
without worrying about what I needed to do when they were over.

        Keith Christmas was next on, playing a solo acoustic set; he can
certainly play and has some nice songs, but he wasn't the legend one of
his fans led me to expect as he was setting up. Scared by playing live
after so long, he said, a nice man with some nice songs and a good hand
with a guitar but I wouldn't have paid to see him by himself, just not
exciting to me. Glad to see anyone who's been away from music coming back
and making a decent go of it though (how many of these are there on
Woronzow, for heavens' sakes, and how does Ade Shaw not only know all of
them but talk them onto a stage again? Ah well.) The songs were called
`Western Man', one I didn't catch the name of, `Heart Soul Body and Mind'
(song about US patriotism I think, lots of slide here, did like this
actually), `Love Like This' (twee, patronising), another unknown and
`Slave to Your Love'.

        And finally the Bevis Frond. Having not seen them in this lineup
before I was apprehensive; I know Paul Simmons is great of course but I
did wonder why they needed him, and in fact he wasn't doing much but
rhythm for a lot of the set and this seemed a waste. New drummer (Jules
Fenton) is an animal, really seems to want to hurt his kit and found
spaces for fills wherever the songs would let him but there isn't a lot of
this; the function the Frond live is to back Nick, basically, which was
why I was wondering what Paul would do. All the same it was good. Nick is
a superb songwriter, and plays like an angel (though I think he plays
better without someone else sharing the range with him personally, Dave
Brock syndrome), and though they are at worst a sixties-style pop band
with more guitar they're bloody good at that and often they are more.
I don't think they're quite the legend their real fans seem to believe but
I'll go and see them every chance I get. Nick's muse is a good kind of
hurt. But today he was seemingly quite cheerful, and that kind of took
some power out of it.

        Anyway, we got: `Lord of Nothing' (I think), `Hole Song #2', a new
one possibly called `Serving Out Your Time' (this was good, bitter),
`Stoned Train Driver' (followed by a ramble from Nick about how he'd have
to modernise the lyrics because they mentioned `chill-out tapes' and him
deciding eventually to remain a dinosaur before finally, as do many of
Nick's stage asides, finishing in incoherence), `Temple Falls' (maybe,
going only by misheard lyrics here), something almost certainly called
`Pass It On' for which Nick strapped on his sitar guitar, and spent some
minutes just noodling with it and ending in big all-strings chords until
the rest of the band got bored of waiting for those to join in with, but
then the actual song was fabulous too, ages long and with some fabulous
twin lead now Paul was the only guitar; Nick therefore announced, "enough
of this psychedelic rubbish' and led of with... `Maybe' (cor, Paul and
Nick are awake now), and then they did `Silver Dart' (probably the only
one off the current album), a long ramble about the sad state of Adam Ant,
whom Nick and many present apparently knew way back when, which led Nick
(amid panic from Jules and cheers from Paul) to try and improvise a new
Adam Ant number on the spot, which probably thankfully only lasted a
verse, and then did `Change in the Weather' from _Acid Jam II_, `Stain On
The Sun' (this will always be lovely, but was a bit thick and sweet
today), and ended with something I didn't recognise and can't find a
plausible title for. They then introduced the band, which meant that as
time ticked towards my last-train threshold, I managed to stay for Paul's
solo, the first time he'd really been able to cut loose all gig and gosh
is he good; he went up a gear after the first get-it-out-of-the-system
gratuitous shred and started roping in bits of Bach and so on, very
Blackmore in approach if not sound; I managed to stay for Jules's which
was very, well, rock drummer, tremendously able but only occasionally
musical, though those bits were very good and he was very watchable and
sort of toured the kit visiting each part with a slowly-moving focus; but
I had to scoot out of the door as Adrian's bass-overdrive began to shake
the rafters, which is a pity as I'd love to have heard what he did to
follow that and Nick's solo might also have been worth hearing as he too
had been somewhat restrained by the standards of the last time I saw
him. Generally however a top-notch performance, not quite all-out guts-
and-everything but still a head and shoulders above almost any other band
you could find playing in a pub on a Saturday night.

        Yours,
                Jon
--
          "If you are rich, throw away your documents.
        If you are poor, do so also." (Egyptian proverb)
               Jonathan Jarrett, Birkbeck College