Grant Lee Phillips – Dingwalls / Lock 17, Camden, London

I’ve been a long-time fan of Grant Lee Phillips – right back to the first Grant Lee Buffalo album ‘Fuzzy’ – so I was pretty excited to see him play at the smallish (500?) Dingwalls in Camden.

The intimate crowd seemed very much into the show, particularly later in the set when a few “hits” like “Mockingbirds” and “Honey, Don’t Think” got an airing.

Playing with a drummer and bass guitarist, Phillips switched between acoustic guitar (mostly for the older material) and electric guitar – including some fairly fierce and lengthy solos. In particular a long solo on a surprise full-band take on the title track to the Grant Lee Buffalo’s debut “Fuzzy”, which was quickly followed by “Jupiter and Teardrop” from the same record.

One of the suprises of the night was how engaging and funny Grant Lee is as on stage. He was making some great cracks from the get-go, remarking that London was looking great – which was a relief cause he’d just seen ‘Children of Men’ and thought it had really gone downhill.

He’s also an impressive mimic – launching into an impromptu burst of Prince’s “Purple Rain” when some joker called out for it, and doing a great impression of Willie Nelson tackling The Pixies “Wave Of Mutilation” (which actually sounded fantastic – so someone pull a bit of a Rick Rubin-Johnny Cash with Willie, and get him tackling the likes of Black Francis already!)

I’ve been really enjoying his just released fifth solo album ‘Stranglet’ so it was great to hear some of that played live. In particular “Runaway”, “Fountain of Youth” and a crunchy guitar heavy take on “Raise The Spirit” to close the main set.

First encore was a run through “Lone Star Song”, and after much coaxing from the crowd – the trio returned for a quick second encore of a busky acoustic take on “The Hook” and The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry”.