That was an amazing gig. Some very fulsome psych rock interspered with solo quirky antifolk. Jeffrey gave a shout out to Rob Frith and I, playing "LPs," which I had mentioned in the Straight piece (Rob had come at my suggestion, along with fellow Neptooner Keith McCafferty, who had last seen Jeffrey in Galway). He did a couple of old favourites like "Back When I Was Four," getting a hearty laugh from Kristy Lee Audette with the line about being 128; and "The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane," with vastly expanded lyrics. The four"low budget films" were the story of Champion Jim, a bio of Alan Moore (whom Jeffrey has met and who has seen Jeffrey's "movie"--he showed us photos!), a bio of Sitting Bull, and finally, the classic "Creeping Brain". Probably I danced most for "Except for the Fact That It Isn't", but there were also at least three brand-new songs in the set, one involving frogs, the other about Jeffrey's many decades of sexual failure ("Me and Sex"), and a song about being the dregs or something, which I couldn't quite catch. The sex and frog songs were especially amazing... some of his funniest, most appealing, most revealing writing... and I like both sex and frogs a ton...
It was maybe my favourite Jeffrey Lewis performance, of the six I have caught. I did shoot some vid, but I wrote the initial draft of this at a food court in a mall, having the "Breakfast of Shame," when you havent slept and dont want to keep your wife awake with your coughing and farting and restlessness, so you go to the only place you can and type a blogpost on your phone... though I am thinking I will go back home to bed for a bit, because I slept very poorly, and have a long day.
Anyhow, I am on my cellphone, so I will let you look up my other vids and such (though I will link one of openers Roundelays, who are very fun). I did a story on them too... and will have another later today on the Still Spirits gig...
One weird note: I have been having a fair number of coincidences lately, and the pleasing/ piquant one last night was a cover of Gang of Four's "Damaged Goods", which I had listened to in full earlier in the day when it came up on my phone's shuffle feature. Only Gang of Four I have listened to in months, and then suddenly Jeffrey was playing it with the Voltage. Weird, huh?
Photos!
I can't tell which of those are okay because, again, mall food court/ cellphone (actually I'm checking them now before I head out, having come home to nap, and they look okay enough). Photos and videos don't really cut it, though.
Oh, another minor coincidence: Mike Usinger had mentioned a favourite song by Jeffrey, the one about eating at restaurants when you are alone (like me, sorta, now) and I was bummed because I thought it was a great song and I don't have that album... then I bought a live-in-studio "bootleg" CDr off Jeffrey's merch table, without even checking the songs on it, and there it was!
Apparently Bellingham will have EVEN MORE merch options... Jeffrey Lewis and the Voltage play again tonight...!
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