The second edition of the four Oxjam launch events, all in the cozy and chummy setting of Dalston's Oxfam store.
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Day two of Oxjam 2011’s launch week saw another sweaty night down at Oxfam’s Dalston branch, transformed for a few days into both the foremost second-hand recordshop (they even have the Power Rangers single in there) and live venue. With Brett Anderson back on solo duties to headline the night, following the Suede reunion shows, the store folk are tripping over themselves with devotees.
Ghostpoet starts things off, and he, as with all tonight’s performers, enjoys the closeness of the crowd from the off, enjoying some hair-ruffling banter with a tall guy standing at the front.
‘Gaaasp’ clicks with the sun having just gone down outside, and while the buses going past the window aren’t quite the night buses evoked on Mercury-nominated album ‘Peanut Butter Blues And Melancholy Jam’, it’s easy to get drawn in, the rapper doing himself a bit of a disservice having just played an absorbing ‘Survive It’ when he wonders if the earlycomers are a bit subdued – “Don’t allow all the old books to keep in your emotions!”
Next up, Patrick Wolf also takes time to interact, taking the compliments on his sparkly top. Playing a stripped down set, it’s just him and a violinist, but that doesn’t mean any less grandeur – “I’m just home from America, so I’m going to do all my London songs tonight”, he announces after an opening ‘Bermondsey Street’, with ‘Pigeon Song’, ‘Hard Times’ and ‘Time Of My Life’ taking on torch song-like qualities.
The minimalist set-up also means some last-minute changes to the set, with ‘House’ parachuted in, and after a bit too much talking during ‘Armistice’, a curt “Shut the fuck up!” from one fan in the crowd gets a “That’s my kind of girl!” from the singer, who then gets embroiled in a hilarious exchange having overheard someone declaring their friend is “either on the toilet or talking to Brett”, desperately trying to find out which it is.
A closing ‘The City’ gets stopped to teach the crowd the correct speed to clap along, Wolf then mock-fainting halfway through (the “exhaustion remix”), then changing the voice on his keyboard to choral (the “Enya remix”). He may apologise for such sketchiness as he leaves the stage, but he needn’t have done , it was tremendous fun.
A white-shirted Brett Anderson takes to the stage in a haze of blue lights, launching into new album opener ‘Unsung’. A glance stage left, then right, and its straight into the glam-stomp of ‘Thin Men Dancing’.
A sturdy ‘Crash About To Happen’ sees Anderson deploy the kind of moves you’d expect from someone who’s been playing big venues and festivals for most of his adult life, the still-wiry frontman standing on top of the monitors and shaking hands with the front row, who are delighted to be able to see their hero in such close quarters.
With ‘Black Rainbows’ recorded before Suede reconvened, Anderson has said that the songs “made me want to be in a rock band again”, and while that’s great news for his old group, it’s reinvigorated his solo work too, with older songs like ‘The Hunted’ and ‘Julian’s Eyes’ acquiring an new edge here. A menacing ‘The Exiles’ is a high point of the evening, delivered with a snarl not seen since ’Dog Man Star’, contrasting nicely with a romantic ‘Posession’.
With arms having flown up in recognition of recent single ‘Brittle Heart’, the singer wades into the crowd, shaking as many hands as possible as a way of saying goodbye, having not spoken a word all night.
It might be a bit late for him to start trying to be enigmatic now, but if he was hoping the songs would speak for themselves, he can count tonight as a success.
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