Dec 2010 live music compendium (Lemonheads, Jebediah, Lightspeed Champion)

I had three shows lined up for December and unfortunately all three were rather frustrating.

The Lemonheads - 1 Dec 2010 - The Metro
To be honest, this was really 'Evan Dando and friends who are not the original Lemonheads playing through It's a Shame About Ray and then another twenty songs'. All within an hour and a bit, mind - it was an automated assembly line of songs, one note-perfect, joyless rendition after another. The room, sweaty and fully packed for the sold-out show, perked up at the singles and created a nice atmosphere with nostalgic singalongs, but on stage there was nothing fun at all. Dando barely acknowledged the audience, saying about ten words the whole night - and eight of them were 'thank you'. There was a one song encore, a shambolic version of Outdoor Type with old friends and support band Smudge, but at least Dando seemed to be enjoying himself for the first time all night. The band were proficient in their playing, and he still has that great voice (rather unfairly, it seemed that all that hard living has agreed with him) but ultimately, it was not a rousing comeback or even a fun nostalgia trip.

Jebediah - 9 Dec 2010 - Annadale Hotel
And Jebediah was not the fun nostalgia trip I was looking for either. I had such a good time at their last show at the Annadale. This time though...yeah, they were still loud and energetic and still ridiculously young looking (Kev Mitchell has surely drunk from the fountain of life). But after the late start, an hour of listening to them play obscure songs from their back catalog and none of thie hits, weaksauce banter and one too many moments of tech problems, we decided to bail. Just one more song, Al and I said, wanting to give them the benefit of the doubt, but after four times we gave it up for lost. You can't go back to being sixteen again...again.

Lightspeed Champion - 3 Jan 2011 - Spectrum
This was a show steeped in chaos from the start. Cancelled and then rescheduled in the new year, after Devonte Hynes was stuck in New York due to snowstorms, it was a tiny crowd that gathered about a foot from the stage on the night, with the much more popular Born Ruffians show on at the same time just three doors down the road.

Hynes' was truly playing a solo show - just one man on stage, with an electric guitar, an acoustic guitar, a keyboard and...a laptop. And this is where things get kind of bizarre - he chose, for half the set, to sing along with his backing tracks playing on his laptop, forsaking live instrumentation for the pre-recorded version, even when he *had* said instrumentation at his disposal. This meant that at times, it felt like we were watching someone at karaoke - well-sung karaoke, sure, but still a little underwhelming as an audience at a show. The biggest shame was that when Hynes chose to go without the track and just accompany himself on guitar or keyboard, he was really good and the music was really really lovely. The highlights, for me, were an acoustic version of Deadhead Blues and of Flush Out, a new song (which he released for free download today!).

He was well-received, none the less; surrounded by enthusiastic fanboys and one very persistent photographer, he struck poses and sang his heart out and for the last song, a cover of Hello, he sang to the crowd in the thick of the crowd on the tiny floor, which finally broke the nervous atmosphere and gave the show and the room some life, just a little too late.