The Vaselines & Jeffery Lewis @ The Church

This week’s I’ve thrown myself back into a healthy schedule of live shows. Five nights, between Sunday and Friday, this week were/are being spent taking in live music. It wasn’t intentional there are just a lot of great acts coming through Philly these days and I couldn’t pass up the opportunities. Things got started Sunday when I caught The Vaselines & Jeffery Lewis in the basement of First Unitarian Church.

Jeffery Lewis

Warming the stage up for The Vaselines was anti-folk hero Jeffrey Lewis who brought his intelligent off kilter tunes in the finest form. Joined on stage by a drummer, violinist and bass Lewis set about creating a sonic soup that just about matched the density of his lyrics. In true anti-folk form he tackles unusual subject matter – history, daily observations, a bus ride – with a vocabulary that allows for layer upon layer of wit to create excellent music for the thinking man. Listening to his material for the first time (which a lot of Sunday night’s pieces were to me) is a bit like listening to a book on tape because there is so much packed into each one.

He was kind enough to give us two chapters in his fantastic historical recaps set to music; the fall of the Soviet Union and the French Revolution, each with their own cartoon slide show. Considering the nature of his art doesn’t aspire to perfection in execution rather effectiveness in story telling it wasn’t a surprise that the instrumentation was a little loose but the overall delivery hit the mark, in particularly his “Mosquito Rap”. It was the most appropriate opener for the act that followed.

[MP3] Walk Into The Mirror (Daytrotter Session)

The Vaselines

I was entirely unsure of what to expect from this Scottish duo who for the last 22 years have been dormant – save for Nirvana’s occasional resurrection of Vaseline tunes- but recently decided to give the band another go. What I got was a very fun concert, nothing too heavy or ground breaking, just good humored alternative rock. They played a good mix of old and new tunes. The old tunes were very indicative of the “scene” when the group’s first album was released (1989 – they broke up the same week of the release) brash and unfiltered; not too angry and definitely not too clean. While it was interesting to hear the music played much as it would’ve been back then there was something flat about the way the guitars and vocals blended into each other that made it awkward to fully digest.

The newer material, though, was much more dynamic and, whether is was written with new technology in mind or simply fresher in their mind, was delivered with a lot more confidence. Their song “Sex With An X” had a particularly fine guitar solo that really showed off Eugene Kelly’s chops. Regardless of what happened to cause them to break up at their peak Kelly and lead vocalist Frances McKee had a very easy stage rapport which gave the whole night the feeling you were just hanging with friends. It was a great set from a band that holds an iconic spot in alternative music history. I’m glad I got a chance to see them live.

[MP3] Son of A Gun