It’s grim up North. It could have been the weather. It’s a typically wet and windy Bank Holiday Monday. It could have been the fact that Live at Leeds: In the Park, Better Days Festival, and Slam Dunk North had all taken place over the last couple of days and local folks had just kind of reached saturation point. Or it could have been the ongoing parlous position of live music in the United Kingdom. I mean even Bruce Springsteen and Beyoncé are still trying to shift tickets for their upcoming dates in football stadia in this country. But whatever the reasons there are sadly very few people in to see Evan Williams tonight. And that is a damn shame because they missed an absolute treat.
And what makes this show even more remarkable is that regular guitarist Rocco Marche was unable to make this run of dates, so Matt Forde was drafted into the breach only last Thursday and has had three days in which to familiarise himself with these songs. His blistering solo at the end of ‘For Anyone’ would suggest he is a quick learner.
Regular Evan Williams’ band members Sahib Dhinsa on bass guitar and Albie Lucas – he of the “Yoko was the best Beatle” T-shirt and propulsive drumming – are in attendance, though, and it is evidently clear that not one of the four musicians is even slightly phased by the last-minute change in personnel or the relatively low turn-out. Such was the supreme effort that they put into this performance they could quite easily have been opening for Springsteen at Anfield next week.
Speaking to Evan Williams after this brilliant show, I asked him why many earlier reviews of his music have him down as “a balladeer” when tonight’s often full-throttle, rocked-out evidence indicates he is anything but. He explains that when he is writing these songs in his New Cross bedroom he does hear them as ballads, but clearly when they are placed in the white-hot heat of the live arena they weld into something else altogether.
It is of little surprise that the bulk of this evening’s set is drawn from Evan Williams’ debut album, The View from Halfway Down which was released only last month through Peter Doherty‘s Strap Originals label. He opens with ‘I’ll Stick Around’ which, thankfully, he and his bandmates do for another nine blistering tunes. On ‘The Doghouse,’ Williams’ voice positively soars. Any comparisons here to Matt Berninger of The National would be fully justified.
By the ensuing ‘Traffic Lights’ they have built up a considerable head of steam, something that by shifting to the piano for ‘The Ending’ Evan Williams does little to bring back off the boil. Albie Lucas’s clattering drum intro to ‘Ride On’ takes you right back to Top of the Pops in 1973 when Golden Earring played their smash hit ‘Radar Love’ and their drummer propelled himself from behind the kit. It is just as raw, just as exciting.
The title track from The View from Halfway Down evolves here into a high-octane, proto-punk banger, something The Damned would surely have been happy to put their name to back in 1977. For his final song, Evan Williams detours from the album in the direction of his 2023 single ‘The Arsonist.’ And true to the song’s title, he sets the place alight before pouring some extra gasolene onto an already incendiary, dizzying riff. It was a pleasure and privilege to have been there.
Photos: Simon Godley
