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Review of Stephen Malkmus
& The Jicks
Date: Monday 25th August, 2008
Venue: The Thekla, Bristol |
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Review by Paul Towler |
| Imagine a long warm summer evening, the kind of
evening you'd ordinarily expect on August Bank Holiday, but given
this years' unceasing weather wash-out, tonight's unusually 'dry'
conditions seemed rather magical by comparison! Walking along
Wapping Wharf towards The Thekla, the harbour swing bridge opened to
allow a boat to pass, offering a chance to stop and savour the
city's colourful evening sky. Candescent shades of blue and pink
shone across Bristol harbour, transforming the city skyline into one
of those classic Cezanne or Monet pastel landscapes - only this was
Bristol rather than the rolling hills of Tuscany. It hardly seemed
right to leave this lovely evening outdoors in exchange for the dark
sweaty confines of a mosh pit, so it was with some relief that
Stephen Malkmus was in town tonight playing on a boat rather than
your average subterranean watering hole. |
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The Thekla is an interesting venue for
any first time visitor. The refurbished ship presents a maze of
different rooms, bars and gangways to discover. You can even enjoy a
drink on deck - well, on dry evenings such as tonight you can at
least. Furthermore, for the drivers amongst us, the ship's bar
kindly advertises free drinking water - something that many live
music venues would ordinarily hand over with a begrudging sneer of
contempt.
For any of our readers unfamiliar with the legend behind Steve
Malkmus, please allow me to cast your minds back to the mid 90's
when Britain's music tabloids were desperately calling on our tribal
instincts to take sides in a futile war between Blur and Oasis (as
if it really mattered). The 90's were a time when Britain's
topflight 'indie' bands seemed too preoccupied by bickering with
each other to notice that far better things were emerging from the
other side of the Atlantic. A whole new generation of American bands
such as Weezer, Eels and Cake were bringing a fresh American sound
to our shores that would overshadow Britpop's shallow counter
culture and lack of innovation. One such American band making waves
here in Britain were Pavement - too angular for commercial appeal,
but a band whose critical acclaim would easily make up for any lack
of commercial success. Pavement's ability to make consistently
excellent albums, rather than just a handful of singles, earned them
recognition as one of the most influential bands of the 90's.
Since Pavement's demise in 1999, their chief songwriter Stephen
Malkmus has delivered four equally dazzling 'solo' albums cut with
his current band The Jicks. The guitars are bright, fluid and
discordant, delivering a pop sensibility with a screwball
alt-country edge. Meanwhile, Malkmus's surreal lyrics nestle
somewhere between the snarling cynicism of The Fall's Mark E Smith
and the ad-hoc coolness of beat-generation novelist Jack Kerouac.
Tonight's set-list was taken mostly from Malkmus's current album
'Real Emotional Trash', rockier than his earlier solo work, and
giving a playful nod to Bolan style lyrical overtones and Bowie's
'The Man Who Sold The World' country-rock years. To be honest, I'd
been hoping to hear a few more of Malkmus's golden oldies, but then
again, people in the audience shouting for old Pavement songs were
never likely to have their requests taken seriously. Tonight,
Malkmus was as he always is - as quirky and enigmatic as ever, and
his band The Jicks are amazing musicians.
While Britain's pseudo-indie mainstream remains as formulaic and
uninspiring as ever, we can at least be thankful for our more
inspiring American cousins such as Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks.
Let's hope their journey back home was a little less rocky than a
gig in the hull of a boat!
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