“I wonder who they are…
…tell me what are their names?
And on what street do they live?”
They are Jeffrey Alexander (guitar and vocals) and Scott Verrastro (drums), who both hail from Philadelphia, the fourth largest city in the United States of America. From Denver, Colorado, there comes Aaron Dooley (bass). And Drew Gardner (guitar) is the man from Harlem, New York. Together, tonight, they are Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders.
And the four men open their 80-minute set with the song from which the above lines are drawn. The song is ‘What Are Their Names’ from David Crosby’s outstanding 1971 album If I Could Only Remember My Name. I have had that record in my possession for more than half a century, but did not recognise this song tonight, such is the radical reinvention afforded it by Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders.
Speaking to Jeffrey Alexander after the show – and what a most modest, warm, welcoming, and grounded individual he is too – he tells me that their version of ‘What Are Their Names’ is “actually a cover of a cover” and that the one in question was recorded by the American psychedelic rock band, Bardo Pond. By the time it has left the hands of those Heavy Lidders, it has mutated into something else altogether, a hypnotic swell of abstraction that transports the listener to another, far better place.
Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders ease gently into ‘Star Power,’ an Alexander original that plots a similarly exploratory route to the cosmos, melding blues rock, space rock, psychedelia, and most other constellations in between.
They then embark on a voyage into Sun Ra territory – members of the Sun Ra Arkestra are near neighbours in Philly – as they dive deep into the late, great jazz visionary’s ‘This Song Is Dedicated to Nature’s God.’ And it is here that the Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders space capsule goes really out there. In a lengthy, heavily improvised piece they shift from a loosely conventional melody into an avant-garde/free jazz space occupied by discordant guitars, flutes, and interplanetary percussion – at one point Scott Verrastro is striking what appear to be a set of old automobile hubcaps – before returning to the more melodic mothership and the earth’s atmosphere.
Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders’ third and final cover of the night, and concluding song to this astonishing set, is their take on the old blues legend Willie Dixon’s ‘Spoonful.’ Those, like me, who are more familiar with Cream’s version of this song will have to re-evaluate their understanding of it after hearing this. A mind-bending journey into the musical unknown, it asks us to re-plot the coordinates to our listening experience.
Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders have five dates left on their current tour of the UK:
| 12th May – Sheffield – Bishop’s House 14th May – Hereford – Weirdshire @ The Speakeasy, Left Bank 15th May – Ipswich – The Smokehouse 16th May – Glastonbury – New Avalon Ballroom Festival @ The King Arthur 17th May – London, The Waiting Room, N16 |
Catch them while you still can, as they may not be back on this planet anytime soon.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos of this show are HERE
