Review:
'NILE, WILLIE/JEFFREY, MARC & McCARTHY, JIM'
'London, Denmark St, 12 Bar Club, 14th April 2011'
- Genre: 'Rock'
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Our Rating:
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I arrived a little late as DARREL BATH was already on and he is always worth a look. I have previously seen him as guitarist for among others Dave Kusworth and Nikki Sudden and his last solo slot I saw was also on the bill with Marc Jeffrey of Band Of Outsiders.
Still Darrel had the room paying attention to his acoustic set and the best of the two and a bit songs I saw was Never Trust a Blonde. It sounded like it came from painful experience and he wrenched plenty of emotion out of his guitar.
After the break, it was time for WILLIE NILE'S headlining set. Now I have to admit I knew his name and reputation but not too much more about his music. Still, anyone who has the sort of Bonhomie that Willie exhibits throughout the set will always win himself plenty of fans and should end up far bigger than he is. There again, he has spent some frustrating years in Record Contract hell.
I loved Run which had some good lyrics and great guitar playing from Willie and his spanish compadre Jorge. He had no end of great introductions and the one to Cell Phones Ringing In the Pockets of the Dead (about the madrid bombings) was both sad and evocative and all the more effective for sounding catchy as all hell too.
I think it was Golden Down or one of the songs from that album that he introduced by telling us it was the song that made The Who ask him to open for them on a US tour way back when.Streets Of New York was prefaced by a tale about how he lives on MacDougal street just down from Patti Smith and a few blocks from where Stephen McCarthy of Band of Outsiders resides.
He made a point of playing the title track to several albums and Places I Have Never Been was another great tune that stuck in my head with ease. We also got a story about how he was introduced to Buddy Holly's widow at this year's South By South West and how he was humbled by the fact that she had bought one of his albums and wanted it signed before he did a fine, urgent version of Holly's Rave On.
Love Is a Train came with a tale of how it was the most requested song on last year's European tour only he didn't know the song so has gone and re-learnt it and stuck it in the set and, wow,his fans know a great train song when they hear one. It had a good slow part and his drummer Frankie Lee really made it feel like we were going down the tracks with him.
They closed with another album title track House of A Thousand Guitars about a dream he had. It's a stonking tune that the whole place seemed to sing along to, even those of us hearing it for the very first time!!
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They encored with a great cover of Jim Carroll's People Who Died leaving everyone wanting more. He then went straight to the CD table to meet and greet anyone who wanted a chat. He was very personable and I have to say the two CDs I bought have some impressive guests ranging from Fred 'Sonic' Smith and Jay Dee Daugherty to the Roches and Loudon Wainwright and Roger McGuinn!
Well I was glad to have chilled a little in the 12 Bar's alley before MARC JEFFREY and JIM McCARTHY of Band of Outsiders' set. Coming after Willie Nile was always going to be a tall order, not least because a good part of the audience had left but this was much better than the last time I saw Marc playing with The Barracudas' Jeremy Gluck at the Dirty Water Club.
They could have done with a rhythm section for a good part of the set. What we got was guitar explorations of the mind; the sonic realms opening up as the two guitars intertwined and spun off into outer space and back again. It was much more of a journey into sound than anything resembling conventional songs and it reminded me in a lot of ways of the show that Tom Verlaine and Jimmy Rip played as a duo at the 100 club a year or two ago, where they take a basic song and just splinter off to all sorts of tangential places.
I really needed to be stoned for this as I'm not sure it would have worked straight. The only song I know they played conventionally was Conviction which was dedicated to Gurbir Dhillon who named his record label after the tune! It was the slow burning end to the show and by far the spaciest tune of the lot. There again, it could just be that the rest of the set had sent me off somewhere and Conviction was the destination. Either way it was a good end to an interesting set that never quite got over the fact they were following Willie Nile.
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author: simonovitch
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