9 years on from the last time Come and The Dream Syndicate played on successive nights at Dingwalls in Camden and Come walked away clear winners of that "East coast west coast" showdown we have a re-match, only this time Come are playing at Cafe Oto and The Dream Syndicate are playing at Lafayette, also this time around while most of The Dream Syndicate showed up to see how high the bar Come set was, Come had planes to catch and so couldn't be at Lafayette, although lots of the audience were at both shows.
This was my first visit to Lafayette, a venue it would be very easy to miss from the outside, in a non-descript new building on Goods Way in Kings Cross, that if The Dream Syndicate had walked along it in 1984, when I first saw them, they would have found a desolate wasteland with some of the most diseased looking prostitutes London had to offer, alongside a variety of junkies. Going into the venue it has a cantina style feel to it, with bars and a Mexican restaurant upstairs, before we went downstairs into the venue that's a nice sized room with a big stage and a balcony to make sure it has really good sight lines.
The Dream Syndicate are touring to promote the band's latest album Ultraviolet Confessions And Battle Hymns as well as celebrating the 40th Anniversary of The Days Of Wine And Roses by playing that monumental album in full for the second set of the evening. The current line-up is Steve Wynn on Vocals and guitar, Jason Victor on Guitar, Mark Walton on Bass and Dennis Duck on drums with special guest vocalist Linda Pitmon.
Right from the opening bars of Bullet Holes its clear this is a great sounding room, they are sounding mighty good and the mix is good and clear so you can hear everything. Out Of My Head had a good acid fried solo from Jason that was good and freaky.
Put Some Miles On had a solid bassline from Mark, as Steve and Jason's guitars kept the pace up, it chugged along like they are on an express train. Damien from the new album had the typical dark lyricism the band trades in, with propulsive drumming from Dennis.
From the first notes of Burn a cheer went up for the only old song of the first set, this was an incandescent take on one of the monuments from the Medicine Show, as Jason tried to blow our minds as much as Paul B Cutler did back in the day, but without any tools to attack his guitar with, but he did give us some brilliant whammy bar action.
Every Time You Come Around felt rather bittersweet. Hard To Say Goodbye sums up some of the emotions of the last few years rather succinctly as they all seemed to be having a load of fun playing the new material.
Trying To Get Over had some twisting guitar whirls and Dennis doing some rather imaginative drumming, they closed the first set with a long version of Glide that now sounds like a staple of the bands set, it was brilliantly road worn but at times fresher than a daisy.
During the break I moved from the right side of the audience to just left of centre so I could get a better look at what Jason and Steve were doing on Guitar. From the Moment Steve told us to put the needle on the vinyl and they launched into Tell Me When It's Over they were on top blistering form, watching just how much Jason's left hand was doing was fascinating.
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Definitely Clean was good and gritty and they seemed to be sizzling, the pain and anguish at the heart of That's What You Always Say came through abundantly as Mark Walton was playing his bass as much as a lead player as he was a rhythm, as all sorts of magic was coming from Jason's guitar as it distorted, twisted, as again the whammy bar seemed to be doing lots of essential work.
Then She Remembers had a propulsive energy coming from Dennis' super energetic and free flowing drums. They then played an astonishing version of Halloween that featured an amazing guitar solo from Steve, it was damn near perfection.
Time to turn the record over as the B-side opens with the somewhat gentler When You Smile before they fly through Until Lately that's as fraught musically as it is lyrically, as things fall apart once more while Jason plays some stupendous slide guitar on it.
For Too Little, Too Late Linda Pitmon strolls on stage and sings it as laconically as she can to mirror Kendra Smiths original performance, it was nothing short of magical. They then closed this set with a monumental run through The Days Of Wine And Roses to leave everyone I was stood nearby shouting for more and looking at each other in amazement at what we'd just heard.
They came back on and took us back to the Days Before Wine And Roses with a slow winding version of Donovan's Season Of The Witch a song that hasn't been in the bands live set for decades, it almost felt like a dream come true to hear them play it live.
Having gone off again they got called back for a second encore and gave us a great 10 minute or so version of the John Coltrane Stereo Blues with some super intense guitar work, several false endings, an earth-shattering conclusion to a brilliant show.
So who wins the showdown this time, well this time by a hairs breath it's The Dream Syndicate, mainly for the second set that for me was 10 out of 10, compared to the 8 out of 10 opening set. So brilliant to still be seeing them live 38 years after I first saw them at The Marquee.
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