PJ Harvey - Royal Festival Hall

An amazing PJ Harvey show at Royal Festival Hall to support her new release ‘White Chalk’.
Playing solo, PJ moved from electric guitar for raw readings of older material like “Mansize” and “Rid Of Me” to open the encore; keyboards; acoustic guitar, harp and piano.
The just released ‘White Chalk’ is very piano-centric, and of the new album material “When Under Ether” and “The Devil” stood out performed solo at the piano.
It was also great to hear “Down by The Water” driven by drum machine and a bed of simple keyboards. And “Angelene” featured an incredible mix of keywords and strummed harp.
It was also great to see PJs dour image slip a little as she made a few jokes, especially around a misbehaving drum machine which she eventually placed “in the naughty corner” of the stage.
All in all a mesmerizing ninety minutes – with older songs like “Big Exit” jostling alongside newer material like “Shame” reminding you how a great a talent PJ Harvey is.


main set:
to bring you my love
send his love to me
when under ether
the devil
white chalk
man-size
angelene
my beautiful leah
nina in ecstasy
electric light
shame
snake
big exit
down by the water
grow grow grow
the mountain
silence

encore:
rid of me
water
the piano
the desperate kingdom of love

The Jesus & Mary Chain, Evan Dando – Brixton Academy

Being a Friday night, it took awhile to get out of post-work drinks and get downtown to The Brixton Academy so we missed first act The Horrors, and the start of Evan Dando’s support.
To be honest I didn’t get the feeling we missed much, as a shaggy but darker haired Dando on guitar, accompanied by Chris Brokaw on second guitarist, noodled his way through a few old favorites. It was great to hear “It’s A Shame About Ray”, “Confetti”, “My Drug Buddy” and in particular “Ride With Me” and Dando was certainly in good voice. But he didn’t seem that interested, and to be honest it almost seemed like he was teaching Brokaw the songs as they played. With no between song banter, and rarely lifting his head from below his shaggy hair, the crowd quickly lost interest so by the end of his short 30 minute set, the audience chatter was almost louder than the music.
I had mixed feeling about seeing The Jesus & Mary Chain. Never a massive die-hard fan of the band – I did like the odd single, and controversially my favorite album is the b-sides/hits collection ‘Barbed Wire Kisses’. Like most indie rock fans I’d also heard numerous stories of the Reid brothers antagonistic relationship. Musically the band also seem to run the gamut from tiny lo-fi to feedback drenched guitar epics.
So it was a pleasant surprise to find the band in fantastic sound. Both Reid brothers looked good for their age, and they were accompanied by a trio of youngsters on guitar, bass and drums. They were also very generous with their “hits”, playing the fantastic “Head On’ second song into the main set, which also included great versions of classics like “Sidewalking”, “Some Candy Talking” and “Just Like Honey”.
Overall the biggest surprise was how great the band sounded – walking the tightrope of melody and feedback much better than I’d heard on any of the previous live recordings and bootlegs.

Evan Dando:
Let's Just Laugh
Pittsburgh
My Drug Buddy
Ride With Me
It’s A Shame About Ray
Confetti
Hospital

JAMC:
Never Understand
Head On
Far Gone And Out
Catchfire
Sidewalking
Snakedriver
Dead End Kids
Happy When It Rains
Some Candy Talking
Between Planets
Blues From A Gun
Cracking Up
All Things Must Pass
Teenage Lust
Vegetable Man
Just Like Honey
You Trip Me Up
Darklands
Nine Million Rainy Days
Reverence