End Of The Road 2012, Saturday - Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard

This is the first time I’ve seen Jeffrey Lewis, but it’s nice to put a face to the music. I suppose some grouches might find his popular culture renaissance man schtick annoying, but he’s genuinely passionate about comics, music, politics etc etc – and a genuinely talented musician and artist. And when you see him live you realise just how charismatic and funny he is. A real anti-star. His band – the Junkyard – can’t stop grinning throughout, mostly grinning at him.

His early evening appearance on the Garden stage was another classic End of the Road moment – the crowd cheered and sang along in this lovely clearing in the woods, and the sun shone. We got a few of the ‘hits’ plus some covers, including a very fine version of the Fall’s ‘Kurious Oranj’ from their late 1980s purple patch. Lewis and the band then popped up at a ‘secret’ gig in the Tipi later that night, running through his brilliant illustrated lecture on the history of punk on the Lower East Side and more. Marvellous.

Here’s a song that featured on Audio Antihero‘s charity compilation Some.Alternate.Universe, which you can buy here.

Jeffrey Lewis’ site is here.

Beer note: My notes are very hazy but at some point on the Saturday I think I had a pint of Whitstable Bay. Nice enough, but Shepherd Neame aren’t my favourite brewer and I seem to have drunk a fair bit of this in bottles recently, because nothing else was available. Still.

jkneale

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