W♥M

Jeffrey Lewis

Systematic Death Back When I Was 4

I went to a show last Sunday at the local record shop (yeah, here in Boise, there's just one of those) and followed it to a basement down the street. This show reminded me what I like so much about folk music (or rather, anti-folk). The songs were catchy and fun (and strange), the band actually interacted with the crowd on more than a rehearsed level, and the feeling was of a bunch of friends just hanging around in a basement (which, really, is what it kind of was), wondering why anyone would actually want to be at the sold-out Vampire Weekend show at the Neurolux when this thing was going down.

 

The perpetrator: Jeffrey Lewis and the Jitters, or rather, the Jitter. The only remaining member of the band on tour was Helen Schreiner on keyboards and backing vocals. Jeffrey Lewis is an anti-folk singer/songwriter and comic book artist (the comic he draws is called Fuff) from New York City, touring in support of his latest, completely literally titled release, 12 Crass Songs, which is seriously twelve Crass songs, rewritten and rearranged to both be relevant today, and sound good as acoustic songs.

 

His typical live set is a combination of songs and “movies,” where he shows storybooks that he drew, along with a song, about such topics as the history of communism, the history of writing, the existential crisis of not looking like a hippie anymore, and creeping brains and monsters with severed red hands.

 

This is definitely one of the best live shows I've seen in a really, really long time, and he's still on tour. I'm including two songs. One Crass cover and one original.

 

Jeffrey Lewis

Jeffrey Lewis

Jeffrey Lewis

Jeffrey Lewis

 

He's got one show tonight (April 4^th) at the El Rey in Los Angeles, opening for The Cribs, and then he hits Europe:

 

April 15 - Cultuurhuis Maison, Maldegem, Belgium
April 16 - Paradiso, Amsterdam, Holland
April 17 - Dominofestival (w/ Adam Green), Bruxelles (Brussels), Belgium
April 18 - De Nieuwe Nor, Heerlen, Holland
April 19 - Paris
April 20 - 23 Scandinavia tour, including Oslo, Gothenberg and more, details tba

 

And then he heads out on a US tour with British Sea Power:

 

Thu-May-01 Columbia, MO Mojo's
Fri-May-02 Oxford, MS Proud Larry's
Sat-May-03 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge
Sun-May-04 Asheville, NC Grey Eagle
Mon-May-05 OFF
Tue-May-06 Carrboro, NC Cats Cradle
Wed-May-07 Charlottesville, VA Satellite Ballroom
Thu-May-08 Washington, DC Black Cat
Fri-May-09 Philadelphia, PA Johnny Brenda's
Sat-May-10 New York, NY Bowery Ballroom
Sun-May-11 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
Mon-May-12 OFF
Tue-May-13 Boston, MA Paradise
Wed-May-14 - Portland, ME SPACE Gallery
Thu-May-15 Montreal, QUE La Sala Rossa
Fri-May-16 Toronto, ONT Lee's Palace
Sat-May-17 Buffalo, NY The Tralf
Sun-May-18 Pittsburgh, PA Mr. Smalls Theatre
Mon-May-19 Hoboken, NJ

 

More info is available at his official website.

 

-Soup

The Cribs at The Varsity Theater, Minneapolis (03/26/08)

The Cribs - Men's Needs The Cribs Tour Dates 03/28/08 Larimer Lounge Denver, CO 03/31/08 Chop Suey Seattle, WA 04/02/08 Doug Fir Portland, OR 04/03/08 Pop Scene San Francisco, CA 04/04/08 El Rey Theatre Los Angeles, CA 06/12/08 Kasbah Coventry, Midlands Read More The Cribs The band is currently working on their third album in Vancouver with Franz Ferdinand's frontman A...

Set List ♥ photograph by Brody Gary Jarman ♥ photograph by vu Ryan Jarman ♥ photograph by vu

We've mentioned The Cribs previously, so you should be familiar with them by now.

They played here last night (March 26th) at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. I've always liked the Varsity because there's couches and seats, so it's not really an ideal "rock" venue, if you get my drift. They also ulitizes their lights, so it's definitely a lot more exciting to watch than, say, most venues that have no or little light-action.

Unfortunately, there is a missing 35W bridge, so I was a little confused and lost finding the theater and ended up missing the two opening bands, Ra Ra Riot and Jeffrey Lewis. I was told by attendees that Lewis was a one-man folk singer and that the crowd really loved Ra Ra Riot.

I always have the biggest respect for warm-up acts, because they have to rock twice as hard working an audience that's essentially not there to see them (this is why I always try and make an effort to spotlight the openers).

To be honest, I wasn't really into the show, but I can tell that the audience loved The Cribs, dancing and singing along.

The highlight of the show was when (I think) Ryan went to play on a prop piano and started making up some lyrics about the Kooks and something.

The brothers ended the set with "Ancient" and they did the rock 'n roll thing and aped out at the last song.

No encores.

 03/27/2008 01:59:04  vu my♥posts thecribs.com myspace.com