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After a near-continuous onslaught of terrific gigs in the last couple of weeks, perhaps a breather was what was needed. Hence tonight's semi-acoustic night at the Vine - a much-needed respite from the headbanging before it all kicks in again next week.
I recognise opening act Napoleon 3rd as formerly being one half of Little Japanese Toy and his music's got a similarly skewed electro feel to it, mixing acoustic guitars with a backing track from something that looks like an old 1960's film projector. Although he's arguably still finding his feet a bit, this is a promising enough performance.
Best of the support acts is Sergeant Buzzfuzz who peddles a similarly skewed look at everyday life to tonight's headliner Chris T-T. Mixing in observational songs about London nightlife with ferocious but witty tirades against modern TV and fox hunting, he's certainly an act I'd be happy to go and watch again.
After that, American Thomas Truax is a bit more off the wall with a lot of his songs verging on the surreal and using all sort of weird electronic gadgetry during the set. It'd all be pretentious as hell if (and this is his saving grace), the guy wasn't such an almost hypnotically talented musician and his finesse keeps the crowd interested and ultimately earns him a well-deserved standing ovation at the end of his set.
It's sad that, three albums into his career, Chris T-T remains one of the UK music scene's best-kept secrets as the guy is an undeniably talented lyricist with a definite ear for a good tune and a pertinent lyric. Tonight's acoustic solo set sees him put a more restrained take on most of the better moments from his superb "London Is Sinking" album from last year ("Tomorrow Morning", "Giraffes", "Tinman", "Cull") plus some real gems such as "Bored Of The War" and the quite achingly lovely "What If My Heart Never Heals?"
"Just remember," Chris smiles halfway through his set, "in 18 months' time there'll be 1500 trendies all pretending they were at this gig". Given the quality of tonight's set, I sincerely hope he's right - the guy deserves all the success he can get.
Review by Andy James
