I enjoyed a fairly low-key solo show from former Blur guitarist Graham Coxon last night at the Paradise. Theirs is not a relationship in which a former member might bring out an old song from the band to play at his solo show; mercifully, most people knew this and there were precious few shouts of “Country House” (though it wouldn’t have done much good anyway; he only sings lead vocals on a few songs, and that’s certainly not one of them).

The show started with opening sets by the Golden Republic (a little more interesting than the last time I saw them) and the 22-20s, lots of black leather, humorless expressions, and Southern-rock inspired stuff. Coxon started out glasses-on, a la Blur circa 1994, but they quickly came off as he started binging on Red Bull and flailing about in his too-tight, tucked in t-shirt. It’s a look, that’s for sure.

I’m not familiar with too much of his solo work, and recognized three our four songs over the course of the evening (plus his Mission of Burma cover, “Fame and Fortune”). So much of his stuff sounded like it could have been a Blur song, in a good, familiar, tuneful kind of way, which was sort of what I was hoping for. The Paradise was once again home to a strange crowd – the kid in the tweed blazer and combo fingerless gloves/mittens in the front row, the kids who were barely alive when “Leisure” came out, the middle-aged woman who seems to go to all of these shows and whose safety I often fear for.

Some things had changed, though, since the last time I’d been there: the Thai restaurant next door, for starters, where every musician could be spotted before the show having dinner, is gone, replaced by the linguistically challenging Qdoba franchise, as well as a massive Jasmine Sola shoe and clothing store. The whole area is looking a lot more reputable and shiny, and all in the last few months. People have been saying that for years, I suppose…