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Live Review
by SashaS
7-10-2003
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| Jeff Klein: 'Everybody Loves A Winner' |
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Live: Jeff Klein
Borderline, London
Monday, October 6, 2003
Jeff Klein is one to watch out for
For an ill man, curing his ailment with alcohol, Jeff Klein performed an incredible set. With the simple words of introducing himself, adding, “From Austin, Texas”, Klein embarks on a 45-minute set that is delivered with a different edge tonight. His voice sounds even more whiskey’n’cigarette marinated to give the evening a feel of an outlaw convention at the last saloon.
He is almost an one-man-band who doesn’t simply deal in songs, his pieces are more like mini life stories, populated with strange characters, observations that cut finely, remarks that reflect his state of mind as well as the world around. He’s a troubadour like a ‘Man with no name’, a loner who rides into town, sorts out (emotional) issues and disappears with the sunset.
Klein looks like a refugee from a New York catwalk, with hair in cool disarray and a minimalist beard. But it is his songs that capture attention and transport you places you don’t know but still feel very familiar. Employing singer-songwriter’s idiom he explores deeper and wider into the bluesy end as well as angst-driven rocking it out. Not adverse to emotional exploration, Klein also knows how to turn ‘Up-to-11’ and get everyone rolling.
Titles like ‘Take The Wheel’, ‘Goodbye’, ‘Hold On World’, appear to open an alternative viewing of humanity but still being sad/happy/sick; for the best part of the show he is backed by a guitarist/keyboardist who appears to smoke as many ciggies as playing riffs.
Klein, who has two albums behind him [‘Everybody Loves A Winner’ (from the begging of this year) and 2000’s ‘You’ll Never Get To Heaven If You Break My Heart’] and worth exploring in detail, was only a support to Cosmic Rough Riders but – what an opening act!
Amazing how everyone loves a winner, or this ilk.
SashaS
7-10-2003
Jeff Klein’s album ‘Everybody Loves A Winner’ is available now on One Little Indian
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