And so it was back to Fibbers, my old stamping ground, in York on a balmy Sunday night to see Dick Valentine, lead singer of Electric Six, performing an acoustic set for the first time in six years at the venue. Back in 2006 I had seen him on his ‘American Troubador’ show where he debuted as-then-unheard tracks such as album Switzerland’s ‘Night Vision’ and ‘Pink Flamingos’ and ‘I Don’t Speak French’, finally released on his solo LP this year ‘Destroy The Children’, a CD available digitally but in limited physical copy at this, and other, shows.
Fibbers, as noted by the second support act of the night, had changed since his particular last appearance in the venue and that, on the new stage, he would have previously been performing in the toilets. But, since I saw the full band there not that long ago, the new Fibbers was familiar to me in all its glowing step, chipboard-walled toilet glory.
Opening support ‘Nico Cara’ didn’t have much of an audience to perform to – it was only just into double figures – but his acoustic original songs were engaging, catchy and well performed and definitely worth a listen at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nico-Cara/363744760302524. Sounding very much like Jamie T in full on ‘Sheila’ mode, his understated music was a joy to hear and a great start to the gig.
It was second support, though, that really kicked up the pace. In a similar style to ‘The Re-entrants’ that supported ‘The Lancashire Hotpots’ at a recent Fibbers gig, Jake Radio’s schtick was to mix a couple of songs from his full piece band “Be Quiet Shout Loud” (found online at http://www.myspace.com/bequietshoutloud) including the fun and tongue-in-cheek “Jesus Is Coming” which folk reimaginings of the most unlikely songs possible, from the opening version of Limp Bizkit’s ‘Rolling’, making the frankly stupid lyrics sound much more credible, to a concluding crowd-interacting version of ‘The Final Countdown’ which the audience were more than happy to sing along with, with crowd engagement being high on Jake Radio’s hit list. With a suit as sharp as the points on his white shoes, Radio also entertained with perhaps the best style-change song I’ve heard ever, even beating The BossHoss, Richard Cheese and their like, in the Bloodhound Gang’s ‘The Bad Touch’. Even though he couldn’t quite keep up with the fast pace of the song it was a cover both funny to hear and masterfully performed. There was though, a roll of eyes from me and my friend when he whipped out a folk version of ‘Gold’ by Spandau Ballet which ‘The Re-Entrants’ had done previously. It was no better or worse than their version but it seems to be becoming Fibbers’ support theme song.
With hardly five minutes between the excellent Jake Radio leaving the stage it was the turn of Electric Six frontman Dick Valentine’ to appear on stage, dressed casually in a green top and a hat with a black guitar slung around his shoulders.
Opening with ‘Hey’ by the Pixies which melded into the titular track of his album-to-promote, Valentine showed far more confidence on stage than six years previously or even on bootlegs from the past few years, playing all the songs flawlessly and with skill, even the songs adapted from full band efforts. “Destroy The Children”, with its hilarious pop culture lyrics, sounded indistinguishable from the album version and was greeted well by the larger, but still disappointingly cosy, crowd. This was to be an excellent night of music and the numbers in the room didn’t justify the quality, but those that were there enjoyed it, ignoring the handful of people who felt it necessary to talk during his songs, which can be covered up at full gigs but not at one where the loudest instrument is a non-electric guitar.
New album opener ‘Counterattacks’ lost its second half instrumental, instead segwaying neatly into ‘Detroit Sandwich’ from the Valentine-song-written ‘Bite Me’ internet video series, a song I’d not heard but one that sounded great live.
It was into more familiar territory next with great performances of ‘Steal Your Bones’ and the cult classic ‘Jimmy Carter’ from ‘Kill’ and ‘Senor Smoke’ albums respectively before ‘Earth Side of the Moon’ from his solo release was delivered with aplomb. Old Wildbunch classic ‘I’m On Acid’ was a welcome appearance next before the as-yet-unreleased ‘I Killed Our Love’ was whipped out and performed well, with some short but witty banter between various tracks by Valentine. ‘Mr Shadow’ moved the set on, again sounding as good as the album version, before personal favourite ‘I Don’t Speak French’ got the crowd singing and laughing, showing a good mix between people familiar with the album and those experiencing it for the first time.
There was a slight break while he sold four copies of the album to lucky people on the stage, an extra fiver being their cost for meeting Valentine on stage and after this unusually lengthy interlude it was back to rattling through the Electric Six classics with ‘When I Get To The Green Building’ and ‘Pink Flamingos’, both sung back to him by the crowd and great versions of them.
The reason for a second mic on stage was revealed next after it had spent much of the stage standing there awkwardly, with Jake Radio appearing back on stage for a well-constructed duet of Tom Waits song ‘Dirt In The Ground’ which, though depressing in tone, was a great match of their vocals.
With some cracking one liners dispensed to the crowd (“Do you know about the Jubilee?” / “What did you say about my friend Billy?”) and a few verbal smackdowns of some crowd idiots, his version of “Evil Cowards” stand-out track ‘Sex Wars’ was very welcome and a much loved addition to the set. It was great to hear it performed acoustically, and the same could be said for ‘I Am Repulsed By My Daughter's Lover’ from his solo album and ‘Vengeance and Fashion’ from ‘Fire’ which were both performed excellently both in relation to guitar and his vocal tricks.
His set continued to be rooted in the past with ‘She’s White’ receiving the stripped-back treatment, but with snippets of Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’ and Peter Gabriel’s ‘Book of Love’ slotted proficiently between the verses. I’m not familiar enough with the latter to comment on it but Valentine certainly gave Tom Chaplin a run for his money in the vocal stakes.
The encore was a well-decided trilogy of songs, from personal new favourite ‘One Policeman Leads To Another’, where he certainly pulled the crowd into singing along and Electric Six classic ‘Dance Commander’ which continued the crowd going mad. It was also fantastic to hear his Bruce Springsteen cover as his closing number, as Valentine’s version of ‘Beautiful Disguise’ is incredible.
Overall, we were treated to nearly eighty minutes of music on the night with a well-balanced cross section of music from his various bands, collaborations and influences and though it would have been great to have perhaps heard something like ‘Night Vision’ performed again there are few complaints from me regarding the track selection, especially with inclusions such as ‘Jimmy Carter’, ‘Sex Wars’ and ‘Pink Flamingos’ from the back catalogue.
Another cracking night of music from an under-appreciated singer-songwriter who showed off his vocal and songwriting skills away from the exhuberance of the full band.
I just hope we can destroy the children before songwriters similar to all three acts on the night are replaced by autotuned dancers. Full Set Hey (The Pixies) Destroy The Children (Dick Valentine) Counterattacks (Dick Valentine) Detroit Sandwich (Bite Me) Steal Your Bones (Electric Six) Jimmy Carter (Electric Six) Earth Side Of The Moon (Dick Valentine) I'm On Acid (The Wildbunch) I Killed Our Love (Electric Six) Mr. Shadow (Dick Valentine) I Don't Speak French (Dick Valentine) When I Get To The Green Building Pink Flamingos (Electric Six) Dirt In The Ground (Tom Waits) Sex Wars (Evil Cowards) I Am Repulsed By My Daughter's Lover (Dick Valentine) Vengeance And Fashion (Electric Six) I Invented The Night (Electric Six) She's White (Inc. 'Somewhere Only We Know' and 'Book Of Love') (Electric Six / Keane / Peter Gabriel) One Policeman Leads To Another (Dick Valentine) Dance Commander (Electric Six) Brilliant Disguise (Bruce Springsteen)
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