The first booking on my 2020 “Spring Dance Card” was this one, and it was a total and utter no-brainer… it takes a Very Special Band indeed to drag me up to London on a school night – particularly the deepest, darkest recesses of North London’s Camden Town – and the list of bands who justify such a trek is getting smaller all the time. One name, however, always rises to the top, that being NYC’s Nada Surf, a band who for me have pretty much gone toe to toe with The Hold Steady for the honour of Best Band In The World for the last decade, and, thanks to another wonderful addition to their flawless canon of work in this year’s sumptuously melodic and warm-hearted “Never Not Together”, pretty much a shoo-in for Album Of The Year honours (yes, already…!), might be actually putting some space between themselves and Minneapolis’ finest. All it needed was a stellar “live” performance…
So
I hit the road early from work for this one, and a good thing too, as an
accident on the M4 delayed me and vindicated my plan to park up at Osterley,
despite a frantic ticket-mare at the car park (note to self – coins! Coins!
Coins!). Nevertheless, I tubed it easily over to the venue for 7.15, joining a
small band of punters on the barriers down the front and chatting to a young
couple who’d travelled from Swansea for the gig! During a trip back to the loo,
I saw Surf mainman Matt Caws manning the merch stand so took the opportunity
for an elbow bump (no handshakes at the moment!) and a few words, which was
nice. Support Jon Vanderslice, on at 8, pulled some anonymously provided
questions from a bowl (“Desert Island top 3?” “How did you lose your
virginity?”), his answers unfortunately proving more entertaining than his set
of morose melancholic college pop. The blue-haired Vanderslice had the slightly
distracted and heron-like stage presence of a Ken Stringfellow, and some of his
better material veered towards Posies-like, but this was mainly a bleak set,
invariably and slightly annoyingly smothered with effects from his percussion
machine, and only a duet with Matt (preceded by a story from him about a
recording session at Jon’s studio, during which he encountered one of Jon’s
neighbours, a guy who, following an accident, had a big toe for a replacement
thumb!) rose above the mediocrity. I did like Jon’s description of Matt
following said duet; “he’s just sunshine, isn’t he?” You’re right there, bud…
Took
another loo break and got back quite easily; in comparison to Saturday’s Hold
Steady gig, this was probably a disappointing 2/3 full. Thankfully that didn’t
play into Nada Surf’s performance; on at 9 to the accompaniment of eerie synth
and dry ice, they were utterly majestic from note one of lushly melodic opener
“So Much Love”, with Matt, still rakishly rock-star slim, already the centre of
attention. As I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, the man has a gift for making
you feel as if he’s playing exclusively for you, and pretty much every time I
looked at him, he seemed to be looking right back! A tough, bouncy “Hi-Speed
Soul” preceded greetings from the man and tonight’s first surprise, “our first
single – rehearsal space back in New York was expensive, so we played really
fast!”, the frantic, superfast strumalong thrillride of “The Plan”, which saw
me bouncing up and down like a loon in my front row spot, bad knees be damned!
The
set encapsulated the essence of this very special band, encompassing all eras
and elements of their sound. “Killian’s Red” was slow-burn, eerie, blood red
lit and goose-bump inducing; “Looking Through” was upbeat, metronomic and
hard-hitting; a lovely “Inside Of Love” was a heartbreaking ballad from the
heavens, delivered with a deliciously yearning vocal from Matt; and the
backbeat “Cold To See Clear” was soaring, optimistic and divine. All
throughout, Nada Surf’s performance was underpinned with generosity, warmth and
humanity, Matt’s expression a picture of beatific serenity whilst he delivered
the rock, leaving the expansive gestures to his bandmates Daniel Lorca –
flailing his dreadlocks wildly – and octopus limbed drummer Ira Elliott. In
fact, Ira, as ever, gave a massively Caldes-like energetic performance to the
set highlight, a brilliantly undulating “Hyperspace” (“a song I wrote in a taxi
to rehearsal as I was late!”), prompting some wag down the front (OK, me…) to
shout, “yeah, Ira!” to which Matt joined in. Yeah, Ira!!
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