Murderbirds Unplugged 3/4/08

Two days after Tuesday's solo gig at The Slaughtered Lamb, I was down in Rochester for the evening to see a full-band Lupen Crook & The Murderbirds performance at the K Bar, the student bar at the University College for the Creative Arts. I took my brother-in-law along. It was an odd gig; not bad, just very distinctive. Some kind of unspecified brotherly fuck-up had left Tom playing the bass parts on an acoustic guitar and Bob bashing out drum patterns on the side of a speaker cabinet with his bare hands.

With all four band members seated, it was a chance to see something different: not a normal show, nor an acoustic set, but kind of mid-way between. Despite Chris' electric guitar, it was more like an "unplugged" session: laid back and relaxed, with Bob's rhythms sounding amazingly tabla-like throughout. Some of the more powerful songs occasionally seemed to lack drive (notably The Number Of Frames and Young Love), but nevertheless it was fascinating to hear a different slant on familiar material.

My brother-in-law liked the quieter songs the best, which was completely the opposite to what I'd been expecting. I thought that the strongest stuff came towards the end, when they really got into their stride with material like Knives 'n' Pliers and Junk 'n' Jubilee. The solo version of Lucky 6 that concluded the show was an absolute killer. It was great to hear a couple of the newer songs again too, especially Beauties And Beasts. I wonder what that's going to sound like with a bass and drums behind it.

Posted by Hg on Sunday 06 April 2008 at 19:48.
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