Coxon's on form as he bashes out some rather good tunes off of his latest album.

There are those gigs you go to when you know all the songs and you recognise every track and get really excited when they play an overlooked b-side. And there are those gigs you go to where you don't know the band and have nothing by them, and you're only there because a mate's dragged you along. Well tonight was similar to the latter as I only have one album by Graham Coxon, and as far as I can tell he didn't play anything off of it tonight. Of course I know "Freaking out", and I have everything Blur have ever done but I guess that's neither here nor there.

I've always thought that Graham was a brilliant guitarist in Blur and loved the 2 songs he sang in that band too ("You're so great", and "Coffee and TV"), so it was pretty obvious he'd do his own stuff eventually. But that's spawned into 6 albums, and his own record label now. The guy is some sort of axe wielding creative genius! You can tell from his performance tonight, that he's brimming with energy and the songs come at you with pneumatic drill like intensity. He says half way through:"... ermmm.. I don't really now what to say now....who says you have to suddenly turn into Bruce Forsythe as soon as you join a band? Let's just play some songs." confirming his punk rock no bull-shit attitude to playing live. The last 8 songs of the set gradually get faster and faster culminating in "Freaking out" and the set closer. By this time the kids in the moshpit down the front were looking a bit tired. He definitely played a lot off of the new album "Love Travels At Illegal Speeds", as I recognised some song titles from the lyrics tonight. The Palais has a great sound I have to say and we could hear everything really clearly, but that could be because we were standing right next to the PA.

Well all in all it was a great gig, and because of where I work I went for free! Bonus!

billyK
8/10
Mon, January 05, 2009