A quick report on last night's jazz butcher show for you....

I arrived in time for the last 15 minutes of max eider's set - he came on at 8.30, finshed just after 9. Finished with "It had to be you" and "Drink," looked cool in shades, backed by a girl singer and man in cardigan playing harmonica.

Middle band, Ubu Swirl, bass, cello acc & elc gtrs, drony & velvety, Ok for 10 minutes, kinda dull for 40.

Jazz Butcher Conspiracy were HOT to match the conditions. Pat & his bass player were dumb enough to wear 3-piece suits but managed to survive.I didn't recognise much of what they played (new stuff, I guess, plus one cover of a Strange Attractors song who Pat apparently place drums for, and one song by some guy that lives in the Alps).

Got called back for one encore, where Pat called Max up on stage (back from propping up the corner of the bar) where after a little on-stage cuddle he got to play guitar on a rocking "Zombie Love." Then it was curfew and we had to go home. The JBC hadn't played for a while, but that only showed in enthusiasm and not sloppiness.

Good fun, very hot.

Ciao,

Mike Kelly and myself made it to the gig. We missed both the support, so no comment there. The band looked very smart - apparently because Pat has to dress up when he plays drums for the Strange Attractors!

Mostly new stuff from Illuminate. Opened with Rosemary Davis (one of my favourites). Played Cute Submarines, When Eno Sings amongst others - a pen would have come in handy.

Overall they were pretty hot - the best I have seem them, but they only played for an hour which was a bit disappointing. Crowd was biggish, enthausiastic and there was even dancing!

Later,

Just to add a few details: Max Eider was *excellent* - I'd never seen him live before, and the songs from Distressed Gentlefolk and Best Kisser worked better, to my mind, in these reduced versions than they do on the albums. Can't remember what he opened with, but shortly afterwards he jeopardised his indie cred by playing a Don Henley song. He did a version ("a song from Pat's 'cute' period") of Girls Who Keep Goldfish; also Raking up the Leaves, and Who Loves You Now. The backing vocalist and harmonica player looked like they were having a lot of fun: jazz dancing behind Max's back.

Completely agree with Jonathan about Ubu Swirl - very Velvets, very Spacemen 3 - I was on the verge of shouting out for Transparent Radiation.

The JBC: They were a little constrained by the size of the stage: they didn't rock out as they did at last summer's Borderline gig. Pat looked good in his suit, but got lost behind his shades (a bad decision), and the whole gig felt slightly hurried (Blues For Dead Dean Reed at what seemed like double tempo) and slightly impersonal: he didn't talk between songs as much as at last year's Acoustic Conspiracy gigs, though there was a good story about Pete Astor, a capo, and an adventurous german woman. Dooj was more restrained than usual.

They opened with Rosemary Davis, the only song from Love Bus. Of the new stuff they did: Cute Submarines, Scarlet, Ugliest Song in the World, When Eno Sings, Blues for Dead Dean Reed. The song by the Austrian who lives in the mountains was Stereo Queen by Wolfgang Tschegg , which Pat has been doing in his solo gigs for a while: it's sounding better every time: he should record it sometime.