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”.

Darren Hanlon – Juuksur, Tallinn Estonia

I’ve been coming to Estonia semi-regularly for work over the last year – so it was an unexpected treat when one of my work trips coincided with my friend Dazzas third (?) show in Estonia.
Juuksur is a great little bar – but very tough to find. A single door off a tiny side street gets you into this reasonably sized basement that seems more like Batman’s secret HQ than the cool lil indie bar it turns out to be.
For this tour, Darren has been playing with drummer Evelyn Morris from the Melbourne punk/eastern hybrid band Baseball. Evelyn also does a solo support set as Piklet, mixing percussions with various vocal effects and live samples.
It’s probably been over a year and a half since I’ve seen Darren play live – and he’s still as much fun as I remember.
Kicking off with a few solo songs – highlight for me is one of my old favourites “Kickstand”. Eve then joins on drums for a few more songs – standout for me was the “Title Fight: Heart Versus Mind” that saw Daz responding to Eve’s backing vocals Jonathan Richman-style.
A few more solo songs – including the great banjo-led “Fight The Future” with Darren joined by a local Estonian drummer who spontaneously played a few songs with him at his last show here. “Punks Not Dead”, “Elbows” – stacks more great songs. Finished the night very early in the morning after visiting some unmarked late opener bar. Great night.