if i were gay and/or british, i'd be all up ons.

luckily, i had a test cancelled for today which allowed me to catch him at the black cat in d.c. last night. here's my expert analysis:

the golden republic: great openers from kansas or some such place i can't remember. i believe the term used to describe it is that they have "chunky basslines". energetic and kickass.

22-20s: i'll give you brits one thing, you know how to set up for a show relatively quickly. these nicely dressed lads showed signs of goodness, mainly when the vocalist displayed his guitar playing abilities, but i found them to be uninspired and, at times, pretty damn boring. i don't know how they sound on their album, but their show left much to be desired. and the crowd felt it, too. as i mentioned in another thread, it may have rubbed off on the vocalist, as once the set moved on he looked more and more like he could care less about what he was doing and abruptly left once it ended.

graham: from the first time i heard the opening strums of "bitter tears" in 2002, i knew that i had to watch him play live, and finally i got the chance. playing a nice mix of songs new and old, he absolutely lived up to my expectations. not to mention, he's so very british, saying things like "go on, then" to the drummer (who looks a lot like a far less intimidating andy falkous of mclusky [r.i.p.]). so cool. anyway, he shredded through a nice, long set (including a killer cover of mission o' burma's "fame and fortune") and it was a pretty nice way to cap off a day which included a mysterious flat tire on my car which would have otherwise shot down my chances of attending. oh yeah, it was loud with a capital OUD. my ears are still ringing. there's only one date left in new york tomorrow night, so if you're around you'd best check it out.

this is why i don't write reviews on a regular basis.


(cut off at the bottom - "who the fuck")

that's a good review.

you're gayer for brits than i am, and i didn't think that was possible.

what can i say, we have good taste.

"As for the performance of Superintendent Harry "Snapper" Organs as Sancho Panza, the audience were bemused by his high-pitched Welsh accent and intimidated by his abusive ad-libs."

I'm gonna have to compare my setlist to yours (mine is at home...or maybe it's still in the car). I bought one of his neato army surplus bags with his name embroidered on it, then, shyly walked over to him at the end of the show and asked him to sign the bag (as well as the setlist). Whatcha think of his bassist? Fuckin' bad ass is what I thought, as was his drummer. His rhythm guitarist was eh...but who cares, it's about GRAHAM'S guitar playing that we wanted to hear.

I should post the photo my friend took of Graham and me together. I swear he looks like the offspring of Elvis Costello. We kept calling him "Junior"...well, not to his face.

So glad you enjoyed his performance!

yeah, the bassist was pretty into it. the other guitarist looked like a hipster version of martin freeman from the original "the office". the drummer really shined in the last few songs, and i got the impression that he was new to the coxon troupe, as graham was giving him cues every so often. but maybe that's just something they do.