Dedicated to the Avalon

November 19th, 2004 · No Comments

It’s been at least a year or so since I’d been to the Avalon, and it had somehow grown in size in my mind, into a venue too big to see a decent small show. I was pleased, then, when it was announced that Badly Drawn Boy’s planned Avalon show had been moved down the street to the Axis; not only would it be a more intimate venue, but it meant that this talent was still not a household name, at least not enough to fill the Avalon. I was impressed on two fronts, then, when we got to Landsdowne Street and followed the crowd into the Avalon, where the show had been re-re-scheduled. The move followed good ticket sales, I suppose, and Damon later expressed his sincere thanks for our support; I was even more pleasantly surprised that the place really isn’t that big. It’s no Roseland Ballroom, for example, which I always feel like it is.

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The one drawback to the Avalon is their “having and eating, too” attitude toward their cake: they have a full crowd pay $20 to see a show, and then they manage to squeeze in a lucrative night of clubbers dancing to guest djs the same night. I think that means Badly Drawn Boy’s opening act went on at around 3:45; by the time we got there at 7:30, Damon had already gone on.

It’s funny to think back to the bizarro first tour he made in the states, that night four years ago at the Paradise when the beautiful folk-pop melodies of “Hour of Bewilderbeast” were nearly totally effaced by a slew of electronic gizmos, envelope-pushing interpretations, and Prince-like seductive crooning. He talked of his Bruce Springsteen obsession that night, and it seemed so out of place, so un-cool, and so ill-fitting for a guy like him. Fast-forward four years, and he’s recorded a stunning cover of “Thunder Road,” his Bruce adoration is well-known, and he got to tell us the story of meeting the Boss in Manchester last year before his show at the Lancaster Country Cricket Ground. The gist of his story: Damon named his son Oscar Bruce (as Bruce is too rubbish a name to be your first name, but ok for a middle name), and Springsteen dedicated that night’s “Thunder Road” to Oscar Bruce. “Then I went out and bought the bootleg to prove it happened.” Damon has an amazing, untarnished sincerity to him that took awhile to become real in my eyes. Just beneath that gruff, beared, be-hatted (?) exterior that says “Indie Busker, leave me alone,” there’s a warm, sensitive, sweet guy who writes some of the most amazing pop songs I’ve ever heard.

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When we got in, he was playing tunes from “1 + 1 = 1,” his newest album, and as the show went on, I realized they were playing the entire album, in order, instrumentals and all. In the era of the almighty single and shuffling iPods (I should know, it’s pretty much the only way I use it), he’s one of the few artists I know of who really pays attention to an album as a whole, peppering instrumentals through the tracklisting, reprising a melody from one song in the chorus of another, and making musical transitions between songs to hold it all together. It was a pleasure to hear the album, which grows on me with every listen, come together with a full band, including cello, violin, guitar, piano, bass, drums, and flute. And think more “Flute Loop,” less Jethro Tull.

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All of that said, it was a real treat of another kind to hear some of the other songs we know and love in the second set, a singles box-set, if you will, of material from his other three albums, including the better-than-most-people’s-real-albums soundtrack album to About a Boy. It became evident just how often he uses a flute in his songs, as well as how nicely the string section fits in when you can re-interpret the songs any way you like. Some of the highlights of the second half were the “Like a Virgin” intro to “Silent Sigh,” and the slow and easy rendition of “40 Days & 40 Fights,” as though it were an Elton John song, and if Elton John were good, and were into women. Damon got down on his knees and did his best heartthrob imitation to sell the point.

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They had to be off stage by the hilarious hour of 9:30 – I wonder what they thought of us? – but packed in a great two hours of music. An excellent show, and home by ten, a perfect recipe for those of us who felt older than the rest of the crowd by a good five or ten years.

Tags: Music