Seeing Jeffrey Lewis & The Junkyard for the second night in a row, I expected a replica of last night’s shorter (40 minute) set, with some added material thrown in. Instead, in the knowledge that there are a few Indietracks attendees in the audience, they go out of their way to shape a set that excludes all of last night’s material. In the hour and a half plus show, they only perform two songs that they played the night before - an impressive feat. They collectively dip and dive between albums, genres and tempos throughout the night. Initially they run on intuition on what to play, a written setlist nowhere to be seen. Eventually, they succumb to the audience and for every random shout out they seem to respond with the song.
As a three-piece they are flush tight yet still exude a rambunctiousness as endearing as it is enthralling. The latter of course perhaps summing up the charm of Jeffrey Lewis as a whole, an artist seemingly on the periphery, both artistically and commercially. ‘No LSD Tonight’ get’s a relatively early outing and it's a delight to hear a room full of people scream in unison “we don’t want no LSD tonight!” the number given a gentler, almost country-shuffle approach this evening, compared to the frantic tension of the recorded version. It is a greatest hits set of sorts; we hear ‘Time Machine’, ‘Posters’, ‘Texas’, ‘If You Shoot the Head You Kill the Ghoul’, ‘Man with the Golden Arm’, the emphasis largely on the rockier material. The biggest success of the night comes from a new song entitled ‘Cult Boyfriend’ in which Jeff plumbs the depths of his insecurities about his own musical and personal status, whilst doing what he does best - being perceptive, humorous and poignant at the same time with ease. Presumably this will feature on his upcoming October release A Turn In the Dream-Songs.
They finish with a rollicking version of Tom Petty’s ‘Running Down A Dream’, Jeff’s skewered vocals giving an idiosyncratic twist and a playful edge to the song. After busting their curfew by some time, they cannot play instruments or drums for their encore space, so Jeff comes up and does the hip-hop rap ‘Mosquito Mass Murderer’ - a hilarious tale of his frustrations with the insects and their quest to bite him. Aided only by the clicks and handclaps he uses as rhythm, it’s a charming way to leave the stage. For all the emphasis placed on Jeff’s slower songs and introverted lyrics, tonight he showed that he and The Junkyard are a ferocious rock band worthy of serious note.