Yes Sylvain Sylvain returned to the 100 Club less than a year after his last solo tour this time it's acoustic rather than with a band as his backing musicians on that tour are either playing elsewhere in town in there other bands or rehearsing to headline Hyde Park at the weekend.
We got in just as The Bears finished their set and I didn't hear enough to make any real comments other than they seem to be made up of a bunch of well-known punk faces.
Soon enough it was time for the Duel to come on and they appear to be having some Spinal tap style problems as the drummer has evaporated or did Tara say he'd been Eviscerated either way he is non-existent for this show, hopefully he will be resurrected in time for the bands appearance at The Rebellion Festival in Blackpool next month.
They opened with a song that asked us to Come Out And Play With Me, well we all had and Tara sounded pretty good in a very Pauline Murray kind of way with Andy wielding his 80's keyboards played like a guitar. They then went Into the first of the bands angry downtrodden rants What Do You Do When The Money Runs Out well some of us would say Busk but they just keep on rocking.
You Can Do It is as good a mantra as any to sing to a room less full than it should be but still with more musicians and music biz people than not and it sounds good but is certainly missing the drums. The Way London Used To Be also sounds a bit thinner than the last time I heard them play it but still nails a lot of what's wrong with how London has changed in recent years.
They then played the title song off the bands fifth album that is about to be released Waging War is a great angry rant against the most stupid of human activities yes starting and waging wars well can't argue with that. Next up was a song about Brotherhood and not of the masonic kind that again could have done with some drums to help underpin it.
They finished with what I think was called Hold Your Love and then the nice and spunky Break Away that was a good way to end a decent set that I'm sure would have been better with the drummer but well sometimes circumstances are beyond our control and here's hoping he recovers soon from whatever ails him.
After the break Sylvain Sylvain came on and after a false start as he forgot to bring his guitar on he plugged in and played some Spanish guitar to grab our attention and then went into a cool version of Teenage News and effortlessly got everyone working as his backing singers. This was followed by a nice version of I'm Sorry that had just enough pathos to be tugging at the heartstrings.
We may have been on Oxford Street but Sylvain was certain we understood what the 14th Street Beat was all about and as raggedy as it was in places I think we all got it. We then had a tribute to Dear old Johnny Thunders with a real sing along on You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory.
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We then got the first of Sylvains stories this time the legendary tale from Long Island of the Dolls playing at My Fathers Place and afterwards going to see Bo Diddley play and all calling for him to sing Pills and Bo thinking they were dealing Pills trying to have them thrown out as the intro to a great version of Pills that saw Sylvain Introduce Ron Paul on the Harmonica, Wow he had the Libertarian contrarian in to blow some harp, oh no it was actually Paul-Ronney Angel from the Urban Voodoo Machine/Dalston Devil Trio etc oops. We tried not to laugh too much at that little Faux-pas as they ripped it up a great version.
Syl then played his most recent single Leaving New York that was a bit more raggedy than last year's band version but still pretty good. After an intro that explained how much Syl and the Dolls loved The Velvet Underground he did a good version of Femme Fatale that just about everyone sung along too before he hammed it up on a totally tits and somewhat funny take on Great Big Kiss that went into the classic Jet Boy that had almost everyone smiling.
We then got Syl's story of how he came up with the name The New York Dolls before he explained where he stole the riff to Trash from good old Duane Eddy and how it was also used on Sheena Is A Punk Rocker among other places. Was there anyone in the 100 club who didn't sing at least the chorus on Trash I'm not sure but it's one of those songs we all love.
Syl then got Ron Paul back up sorry that should have been Paul-Ronney Angel and Glen Matlock for Personality Crisis that they vamped up and ramped up and camped up it was brilliant and in places messy but great fun, before they proved that while they all knew the tune to Get It On none of them knew the words it was wonderfully messy and part way through Paul-Ronney encouraged Doctor Lloyd Gomez-Deville from The Urban Voodoo Machine to join in on trumpet and the moment Syl heard him he encouraged him up to play some more as this jam brought the show to a suitable messy end.
All that there was time for after that was for Syl to reprise Leaving New York unplugged and played as he walked through the crowd on his way back to the dressing room. It's always cool to see any New York Doll and this was no exception a good fun night out.
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