I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again……Jeffrey Lewis doesn’t dissappoint! A wonderful night watching a guy at the top of his game – Hell, I even gave him the shirt off my back – what a show! Lee couldn’t make it due to a flu bug so babysitter ‘Boy-Lee’ came instead. Jeff kindly signed a Vinyl copy of ‘A Turn In The Dream Songs‘ to Lee which might ease her dissappointment of not seeing this………
Fellow QUIMS member Jez reports – ‘Jez Lewis does Jeff Lewis’…….
Jez Lewis (no relation) had been looking forward to this for some time.
Ok so girl Lee couldn’t attend so we had Boy Lee, Simon and Jez (no relation) excitedly gulping down Brown Ale at Jack’s merchandising stall as Bobby Dazzler sweet-talked Jeff into signing newly purchased vinyl in return for his t-shirt. This led to… Dufus!
There was a strange lone dancer in the audience as Seth treated us to a grab bag of acoustic guitar anti-folk, pausing briefly at half time to plug in his iPod and belt out an acid rap. Anyone who gargles a middle 8 to a song is okay by me! Most entertaining, which led to… A revisit to Jack to purchase a Dufus CD.
I’m not sure of the name of the next support act: ‘Care in the Community’ would have been appropriate. It turns out the strange dancer is their Bez! The highlight is the piñata with Lego rather than the Aspergers inspired “Let’s memorise international dialling codes”, although lyric of the night (so far) goes to “I don’t know the Spanish for my poncho has vanished”. Overall, a good idea poorly executed, which led to… Consumption of more brown ale.
Jeffrey’s (no relation) promo material promised low-fi folk, sci-fi punk and low-tech special effects. Jeff & The Junkyard delivered aplenty. We were blown away by great songs from right across his catalogue – “How Can It Be”, “Heavy Heart”, “Big A Little A”, “An Alien’s Bright Idea” highlights for me.
A great performance – new keys player came with a fine shadow; jack on top form; wonderfully low tech – Jeff kneeling down to sing/narrate his graphic art so that he did not block the hastily configured projector propped on a beer crate at his feet. He even dealt with Bob’s brown ale fuelled heckles with as much understated confidence he could muster – “Marco Polo… He was born in Venice?”… “According to the information I have, yes” replied J Lewis, Esq.
Once or twice in a generation a group/solo artist comes out of New York that changes everything… The Velvet Underground, Blondie, The Strokes, definitely. LCD Soundsystem, possibly. Is Jeffrey Lewis (no relation) the best NYC artist of the Noughties? According to the information I have, yes.
J Lewis, Esq. (No relation).
Bob the Chiropodist