This was a strange affair!!! Not sure whether I liked it or not…
I’ve been listening to the ‘Stage Names’ album for several months now and absolutely love it…. Great songs, great voice, good arrangements (the acoustic Demo version is even better!) – so I was quite looking forward to seeing them perform live.
By the way support act ‘Jay Jay Pistolet’ was absolutely charming and well worth looking out for in the future.
Okkervil River came on stage and surprised me with their attitude and energy level which was much more than I had anticipated. They played 2 or 3 songs in a row from ’Stage Names’ which were well played with gusto, and very enjoyable. Then it all went a bit pear-shaped because they slotted in more and more earlier material from the likes of ‘Black Sheep Boy’ etc. Well I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t understand why there is such a huge gulf between the latest album and earlier works – the new stuff is great, the old stuff – well it is pretty shit really. Maybe I need to listen more to the albums!!??. Anyway suffice to say it took the shine off an otherwise super performance – I came away with mixed feelings. Loved em and hated em in the same concert !!!! Oh well. You win some, you lose some…….