Westerberg Wows London Crowd Considering its eleven years since Paul Westerberg last played this country you might be forgiven for thinking what audience he had may have dwindled, you also might think the enthusiasm and Despite Paul's assertion that there was no set list on a radio interview earlier in the day, there did seem to be something of a plan, at least as he rattled through the first few numbers. This portion of the set included the night's only song from Folker, 'My Dad', complete with a compulsory fluff of lyrics, and a mention for his son Johnny, at the line 'His only grandson' Paul said 'He was crying when I left, and he'll be crying when I get home'. This was followed by 'Another Girl Another Planet' which gave an indication that Paul was willing to play pretty much anything from his or the Mats back catalogue, as long as he could remember how to! After a vibrant 'Little Mascara', the mood was slowed for the touching 'Born For Me', as the audience finished singing that one, Paul said 'Then I didn't write a song for three years, until this' and hit 'High Time' from Mono. The VIP thing - We hunted around after the show for where Paul may show up, the bar was too full, no merchandise stand, no one in the hall but road crew, so we search for another bar, up several flights of stairs we find it, Kevin, by virtue of the fact the security guy saw him singing his heart out after the stage invasion, blaggs us in without passes. After a few minutes Paul shows up still in his stage gear, after a chat with some industry/Uncut types we move in for what turns out to be quite a chat! Paul admitted he didn't know what to expect from the show, but thought it went great (this was reflected by his good mood), we asked if he'd recorded the show 'Well somebody will have' he joked. He said he wished he had a recording of it to show much bigger US audiences (he mentioned LA and Chicago in particular) how great 600 people can sound. So I asked him given that now he knows he has an audience here, would he be coming back, he said he'd like to come back in the new year, but bring a band, he'd like to play a few shows in the UK and in Europe, Germany he mentioned in particular. He said he was going straight home today, not doing Jools Holland as we thought. He talked about the band being his 'old friend' Michael Bland, and 'a couple of guys from Son Volt'. Eddie asked him about his love for Johnny Thunders, and Paul said (I think I got this right) that his manager also represents David Johannsen (or David Yo as Paul called him) Not wishing to push our unbelievable luck this seemed like the time to go, he signed stuff for us, posed for a few pictures, we shook hands and we thanked him for coming here and taking the time to talk to us, he thanked us for coming to the show. We left on cloud 10. written by Patrick Wilkins |
familiarity with the material may be dimmed compared to that of an American audience, after all who knows the Replacements over here right? And then you might think that this crowd showed up out of casual curiosity. If you thought any of these things you would be completely utterly totally very very wrong. Even before the show, the lines were around the block, and this was people who already had tickets, just wanting to get in and get a good spot. Once in the venue the level of anticipation was stratospheric. The stage, as on the Come Feel Me Tremble tour, had a sofa at the rear with a few guitars leaning against it. When Paul hit the stage at around 8.45, thumping into 'Waiting for Somebody', the tone for the evening was set, frequently the Westerberg vocal was drowned out by the word perfect crowd, hands clapped time above heads, fists punched the air. I saw two Westerberg shows on the 2002 'Come Feel Me Tremble' American tour, and saw similar enthusiasm there, so I thought its an American thing, a Brit audience is more subdued, but its not an American thing it's a Westerberg thing, nobody was subdued here.
It was about now that the plan ran out, and songs that were shouted for got played, 'If Only You Were Lonely' was probably the strongest sing along yet, the following 'Crackle and Drag' sounded a little thin in comparison. 'Lush And Green' proved too much for one audience member who at the close of the song clambered on stage to grab Paul for an emotional hug, it was taken as it was intended and the guy left the stage delighted at having managed to express what everyone else seemed to be feeling. The finest sequence of the night was a triple whammy of, 'I Will Dare' 'Knockin' On Mine' and 'Alex Chilton'. 'Knockin on Mine' was complete with lyric change, 'The English teacher from Vancouver' switched location to Sheffield, Paul explained the Mats once played a bingo hall in Sheffield to 9 people and a dog. 'Swingin' Party' rivaled 'If Only You Were Lonely' for audience volume. After 'Love Untold' to the confusion and irritation of the security staff, Paul invited the audience on stage, and sang Skyway and Here Comes A Regular surrounded by happy smiling faces. He clambered through the gathered bodies to briefly leave the stage, then returned for an encore of an electric 'Cant Hardly Wait', the ecstatic crowd singing like it was some kind of team chant. Paul had a stab at another request, 'Customer' and toyed with a couple of blues songs, before deciding that was it. I said to him after the show if he didn't know whether or not he had a UK audience, well he does now!
, so he was asked if he wanted to play the Johnny Thunders role in the reformed Dolls (Both me and Eddie go FUUUUCCKKK!!!), he said he thought about it for 30 seconds then said no, he still thought Izzy Stradlin did it, eventually we remembered the name of the guy that did (Steve Conte or something like that). Kevin asked him about the Tommy situation, he says he loves him like a brother, but some stuff clearly annoyed him, there was talk of doing a GQ shoot together which Tommy was up for apparently, 'If we're going to get together I'll do it on a stage, not standing around wearing somebody else's fuckin' clothes'. I loved that! He thinks Tommy is too influenced by Axl, and said the last time he talked to Tommy in any detail was about the possible reform to do the Buddy Holly route, which he is convinced Axl squashed (he even made a gesture with his thumb down to show us what 'squashing' meant). We asked him if 'How Can You Like Him' is about anyone, he said really it was about his imitators, inevitably Ryan Adams name came up and he said of their much discussed spat 'he needs to get a fuckin' sense of humour'. Prompted by Eddie (who would make an excellent interviewer!) Paul talked a little about Johnny and missing being at home, and how his wife is teaching now, not being in bands, and how he started smoking (cigarettes not cigars) around the time his dad died even though his dad had lung problems. Some Americans joined the chat and asked about west coast dates, Paul said he was going to go 'all up and down the west coast', they were asking very specific questions about which venues in San Francisco he might play, which had Paul a bit befuddled.