Dick Valentine, Soup Kitchen, Manchester
Supported by Massive Horse, Monday 6th May 2013
Having missed Valentine’s trip to my usual haunt of Fibbers in York, I made it my aim to visit him on his trip to Manchester four days later. A longer trek than usual took me to the Soup Kitchen, down a back alley that smelt of spilt WKD and whose visitors included a man taking a slash against a commercial dustbin without a care in the world. Welcome to Manchester.
With the doors opening a half hour later than advertised, it was at least good enough weather to stand outside and wait. But it wasn’t a long wait with good friends and soon we were inside the venue, a smaller pub than Fibbers and less snazzy, with cans of Strongbow on sale for £3.50, toilets that were collapsing in on themselves but otherwise quite a nice set-up. And, yes, they did sell hot soup (£4.00) – which I didn’t try, but it must give the regular acts more of an incentive to be good when the projectiles aren’t half-filled cans of Red Stripe but steaming hot mulligatawny.
‘Massive Horse’, Wales’ answer to the ‘Lonely Island’ came on about quarter past eight for a thoroughly enjoyable thirty-minute set. With a series of projected videos which doubled as the music and backing that started with a genuinely funny intro, it was a well-constructed, raw but laugh-a-long set. Opening with the Dick Valentine-featuring ‘The Shrinking Planet’ (but disappointingly only featuring Valentine in video form) it was a rollercoaster of great songs and skits, with ‘We Got a Black Guy on this track’ and closer ‘Bane-ing’ being two highlights, but all the tracks were both musically and lyrically fun. ‘She Only Comes Out At Night’ was full singable The performance wasn’t as slick as you’d expect but there was plenty of energy, crowd engagement and wackiness, with Rihanna getting the parody treatment and two customers from the eight-strong crowd getting pulled on stage to play inflatable guitars. Well worth the £7 I spent on their EP and single ahead of their album, I’d probably pay to see them on their own.
With just a five minute gap, Electric Six lead singer Dick Valentine set up on stage with nothing but a guitar, microphone on stand and a bottle of wine. With a set of 27 songs and touching on nearly ninety minutes, there was plenty of bang for your buck, with a set list including numbers from his two solo albums, Electric Six tracks, songs by Evil Cowards and a smattering of covers, including a brilliant version of Toto’s ‘Africa’.
Valentine’s voice was on perfect form and it was the best showcase of his work I’d seen. Acoustic adaptations of ‘I Buy The Drugs’ and ‘Free Samples’ were brilliant to hear, and returning favourites ‘Jimmy Carter’ and ‘Pink Flamingos’ were as strong as ever. ‘Litterbug’, ‘Loss of Life’ and ‘Gimme Five’ from his latest album ‘Halloween Fingers’ fitted in well and were listenable even on a first time and tracks from last year’s solo album such as ‘Destroy The Children’ and, particularly, ‘One Policeman Leads To Another’ have matured. There were a few less enjoyable numbers and the covers I wasn’t familiar with less appealing due to their lack of familiarity, but the skill vocally and on the guitar was there to carry you through.
He kept the crowd pleased with hits such as ‘Gay Bar’, which concluded the night as he cut off ‘The Termite Queen’, but as members of the crowd were shouting out for songs like ‘Sex Wars’ (which he played) it wasn’t your regular assembly of people not knowing his material.
Overall this night was one of the most enjoyable acoustic sets I’ve seen from Valentine. His guitar work and vocals were on top form – arguably better than in recorded form, alongside his moments of conversation between and during songs, and the selection and number of tracks was pretty flawless, and supported by a warm-up learning their trade and pulling out the stops, on the road to becoming a strong headliner.
Trying to sound not too grandiose, this night showed that under his moniker of Dick Valentine, Tyler Spencer is one of the most under-rated songwriters of our time, able to pull off a wide range of tracks acoustically and hold the attention of a crowd.
(8/10)
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