This was Steve Wynn's second show on the UK leg of his current European tour to promote his book I Wouldn't Say it If It Wasn't True A Memoir Of Life, Music, And The Dream Syndicate (www.jawbonepress.com), it follows a similar pattern to the shows he played last year. This was the first time I have been to an all sit down show at the M.O.T.H. club and was happy to get a seat in the third row.
First on at the Memorable Order Of Tin Hats club at the General Browning in Hackney was Jamie Perrett whose top was almost as spangly as the clubs backdrop. Jamie opened his set playing solo on Modern Living a subject that seems to get more fraught with every passing day, this has some bitter lyrics for how we live in this allegedly interconnected world. What the doctors say is a warning that not all the pills the doctor gives out will do you good, it's about learning to live with how your different from what society might perceive as being normal.
Jamie was then joined on stage by his Drummer and bass player for a much heavier sounding Outlier that was the first song where he really sounded like his dad Peter who was sitting at the end of the row I was in. Age Of Reason from his current Nepo Baby Ep sounded suitably mystified at the lack of reason in our current times. Jamie made clear that Nepo Baby was about the truly rich and entitled sort, not the sons of famous musicians, it is angry at the sense of entitlement and had some really cool string samples.
Glory Days took us into a dark place where you see both sides of someone's character after they have fully imbibed and the evil twin appears, the guitars and drums got nicely discordant on this tune.
Got It Wrong at least shows that Jamie knows when he's overstepped the mark and asks for a little forgiveness. He ended this cool set with God Is Praying that he played solo, it seems to grow with every performance of it I see, possibly because the pertinence of the lyrics just seems to grow.
After the break Steve came onto a very bare stage that had his pedal board plugged into the monitors, a microphone and a stand for him to rest his notes on. The show started with Steve telling us about his very first band in high school and how aged 12 he retired for the first time, after they had played there first big gig, before he whipped off his glasses and played a raw version of Jumping Jack Flash that was indeed a gas gas gas.
Steve then told us about the first song he ever wrote aged about 12, Sing My Blues has come to life a bit more over the course of this tour. Steve then spoke about his first proper band Suspects and how that bands elder statesman Steve Suchil turned the young Steve onto all sorts of less well-known band's including the Velvet Underground and the impact hearing the Banana album had on him. Sunday Morning was played nice and slow.
It was then time for Steve's legendary Alex Chilton road trip story of how he met his hero from the still totally obscure Big Star, he found him by visiting the Memphis address on Tav Falco's Panther Burns record he owned, Tav opened the door and directed him to Alex's favourite watering hole, where Steve spent the next week buying Alex drinks and chatting about life music and everything but Big Star, before he played a very cool version of Jesus Christ.
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Steve talked about forming The Dream Syndicate on his return to LA after visiting New York on that trip. He is still astonished at how quickly it all came together for that first legendary ep, That's What You Always Say was played with loads of passion. More tales of the early Dream Syndicate and how they would take other people's songs and turn them into something new, he demonstrated this by starting to play Save It For Later by The (English) Beat that he then slowed down and turned into Tell Me When It's Over.
More early tales led into Definitely Clean, The band started to take off and Slash records came along to help them record The Days Of Wine And Roses in one speedy blur, he then hit a few trigger pedals to give lots of drones for When You Smile.
Steve told us about the bidding war, along with touring with U2 and Kendra quitting, they signed to A & M and quickly lost the plot during the months long recording process for the Medicine Show album, that left Steve an drunken wreck needing to sing about goings on in Merrittville.
Make it right from his latest album about the experiences in the book seemed to have more energy than it did last year. The band struggled to adjust to the major label lifestyle for Medicine Show, but it was a bit much, Steve's stories about the band's first European tour made clear, they had more road crew than they were used too, the label even hired the band its own PA system.
He gave a short story about Out Of The Grey being almost a recovery song before playing it slow and cool. Steve then told us about how the band started to fall apart around the time of Ghost Stories and that the album finished with what he thought was a perfect last song for a band When The Curtain Falls that sounded really powerful sung stripped back, with just the odd hint of regret.
Steve then said a few things about his post Dream Syndicate solo career and the bands brilliant second act before closing with another great version of The Days Of Wine And Roses the leave us all happy.
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