So, for those of you who care, here’s my rundown of the Badly Drawn Boy show I saw at TLA last Friday with Effie. It was, in a word, incredible. He played for nearly two and a half hours, and not a bit of it fell flat. And he didn’t storm out like he apparently did at another recent show. Score! Really though, it was nice. I highly recommend it.
Some guy, Adam Green, whose music I’ve seen described as "antifolk," opened for BDB. What can I say? His 30 minute set consisted of silly songs about Jessica Simpson and, uh, other stuff. I honestly wasn’t paying much attention, and spent most of the time engrossed in conversation with Effie about her new crush. After his set there was another 30 minutes or so before Damon took the stage. Then, yes, the moment we were all waiting for."Octopus’s Garden" by the Beatles played while the lights came up and the band members took their places on stage. Damon came on, said "this next song is gonna be the first song in the set" to much laughter, and jumped right into "40 Days & 40 Fights." (Quite possibly one of my favorite songs off the new album, and, therefore, a great choice for an opener.) At first he seemed to have zero stage presence, he just played and smoked and drank, but eventually he started to interact with the crowd. He asked a guy, Kevin, why his girlfriend wasn’t there, and then advised him to get a new one (one with more respect for great music, I’d assume), adding "first you need to change your name to something ultra sexy." I agree. Then he played a couple of songs from the "About A Boy" soundtrack, including "Silent Sigh," first played with a yucky synth edge, then with a prettier piano sound. I’d say it’s a measure of his versatility that he likes messing about with his songs, first taking them in one direction, then another, before finally settling on one way of playing them.After teasing the crowd with the opening bit of "Once Around The Block" he brought out a talking James Brown doll to play with. It did its bit, sang its song, and then BDB said "alright, fuck off" and had it escorted off stage. Then some more songs from "About A Boy" and a cover of "Let The Sunshine In" from "Hair." I didn’t quite recognize the song for what it was at first, but I knew from the lyrics that it wasn’t anything he’d written. Then, rather than go through the scripted farce that is leaving the stage, then coming back for an "encore," he said "I’m gonna take a five minute break to change my underwear."A few minutes later he came back and said that the next song, "The Shining," was for everyone’s kids, and asked us whether we’d like to see some pictures of his kids, Eadie and Oscar. He offered to pass them around, provided we return them, but a loud guy in the back shouted, "Don’t trust us!" and killed any chance of that happening. Then he played "Once Around The Block" with slightly improvised lyrics, including a line which rhymed garage and marriage. Aww, silly Brits with their cute little accents. A bit later, after sizing up the crowd, he said, "You never see George Bush at a gig like this, do you?" and segued into a short ditty with the lyrics "That’s why I’m running for president… and I’m gonna lose." What a world it would be if Badly Drawn Boy were president…After playing a couple more new songs he returned, once again, to his older material and played an interesting medley of "Cause A Rockslide" and "Pissing In The Wind" ("Don’t applaud that, that was rubbish.") and then transitioned into a full-fledged version of "Pissing In The Wind." I got bored with the song, which I usually do when I’m playing "Hour Of Bewilderbeast," and refilled my water bottle (they made me throw away my bottle of water before I came in, then charged $2.75 at the concession stand for one; grr!) in the bathroom sink. The bathroom itself was, though an interesting use of space as Effie noted, rather disgusting, and thus I questioned the quality of the water from the tap. When I asked a random woman in the bathroom how scuzzy she thought the water was she said, "It’s cleaner than everything else here, if that’s any indication." Sad, but true.At this point the show was on its last leg, so Damon asked the crowd for requests. A guy near the stage requested "Walking Out Of Stride," which Damon said he’d never played live before because people usually forget about the shorter songs like that. (Untrue! I totally wanted him to play "Imaginary Lines!" And it didn’t happen! Damn me and my hardly audible voice! Ok, so, yes, on that note…) Next someone requested, and the vagueness of this about killed me, "something by Bruce Springsteen." Damon’s a big fan of The Boss, and so he quite easily played bits from "Born To Run" and "Thunder Road." Then he paid tribute to his idol by saying, "God bless Bruce, he made me do this in the first place" and quickly added, "… let’s not forget Bon Jovi." I’m not sure if he was kidding about the Bon Jovi part, but I certainly hope he was.For his last song he asked the sound guy for an echo and, to the tune of "The Further I Slide," made beat box noises and sang in a falsetto voice. It was great watching him fool around with the echo and see what funky things he could come up with. After much goofiness he said, "I think I’m getting the hang of this," and started into the lyrics to "The Further I Slide." It was a nice way to end the set cause it got a lot of the couples dancing and put everyone in a chill mood.Some hours later Effie and I finally made it back to Penn (our knowledge of SEPTA is sketchy, at best), me quite content at having finally seen one of my favorite artists in concert, and Effie now one of Badly Drawn Boy's biggest fans. All in all, it was a good night. -ChristineSo, for those of you
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