I’d been looking forward to seeing Adam Green for a good old while now, and he didn’t disappoint. Maybe the crowd did, but crowds always irk me.The set was a solid mix of old and new, the atmosphere on the whole was great (in between songs anyway, people could’ve seemed a little happier when he was playing!) and he was backed by a strong 4-piece band.Arriving on stage in Plug’s 2nd room to healthy woop-littered applause, Green was sporting some dashing tight white trousers, and a dark blue top with some delightful tassels attached to the arms. Charming.Introducing themselves as a ‘Jewish Folk Band’ they pretty much cracked straight into things, with the almost stop-start number Festival Song which they merged into the next song, the more up tempo and punchy Hollywood Bowl. After having quite a strong string presence on previous albums I was a little disappointed when it was clear they’d be no strings on stage, but nevertheless the songs lacked very little due to the tight backing band.
Adam Green performing is always an interesting experience, as he staggers and sways around the stage staring into the distance somewhere. It’s difficult to tell whether he’s as drunk as you think he is, or if that’s just what happens to him when he takes to the stage. The way he sings note-perfect tells you he’s not drunk, but the way he looks screams that he’s had at least a few. His singing was made all the stronger after about 20 seconds when his vocal monitor was turned off as it was feeding back horribly. It didn’t matter.
Halfway through, his backing band left the stage and Green performed a couple of numbers accoustically. He almost seems more comfortable performing in this way – any doubts that he’s feeling awkward performing are soon put to bed and it all seems as natural as breathing to him. It was a nice touch and let us see an other element to his act.
The only thing really lacking from this gig, having heard the new album, was a need for backing vocals – some of the new songs have some great backing, but the band rarely chipped in to provide this – the crowd could’ve helped out, but alas, this never happened.
After the set finished, seemingly way too early, they popped back on for a lovely little encore of Choke on a Cock, Jessica and a cover of Cream’s Spoonful, which was nice. Still, all seemed to be over a little too soon, but with 24 tracks down, I can’t complain too much really.
By Ben Hayes.
SETLIST
1. Festival Song
2. Hollywood Bowl
3. Exp 1.
4. Broadcast beach
5. I Wanna Die
6. Over the Sunrise
7. Leaky Flask
8. Cannot Get Sicker
9. Carolina
10. Pay the Toll
11. Nat King Cole
12. Secret Tongues
13. Friends of Mine
14. You Get So Lucky
15. Chubby Princess
16. It’s A Fine
17. Getting Lead
18. Be My Man
19. Novotel
20. Dance With Me
21. Morning After Midnight
——encore——
22. Choke on a Cock
23. Jessica
24. Spoonful (Cream Cover)
Lovely.
