What I’ve come to expect from a live Adam Green show is a large dose of ridiculousness, some crazy dance moves, a strikingly amazing range in terms of vocals and a hefty bag filled with monkeys. Although I’ve only seen Adam Green three times, they all had a huge impact on my Summer 2008 and I think they’ve had quite a large effect on how I felt about his show on Saturday February 6th at the Concorde 2 in Brighton. The first three times I saw him were in San Francisco at the Rickshaw Stop which was the size of the bar at the Concorde 2, then at the Troubadour (big-ish only compared to the Echo) and then Amoeba. It was a wonderful three days filled with child-like wonder, stolen Raybans and handpicked (by us!) encores and partial setlists.
But more to the point: his show at the Concorde 2. Green’s backing band walked on stage to, well, no fanfare which I found a little offensive because while they do play backup for Green on tours, they’re a different band, Spacecamp (formerly Spacekamp) and they’re all incredibly adept and have a wonderful knack for keeping time with Adam, which, by the way, is nothing to sneeze at. But when Adam Green walked onto stage, my face immediately fell. He looked so thin compared to the last US tour I saw him on – he must have lost atleast 20lbs. Gone was his cherubic Jewish-James-Dean-Face (for the most part) and certainly gone was his little bit of chub, he appeared tired and gaunt. Without going too much into personal problems that are completely none of my business, but it seems (especially on ‘Minor Love’) that the Adam Green of old – with his surreal, sexual, ridiculous lyrics and buoyant music, has been partially replaced by a reserved, melancholy album that wouldn’t seem to fit with his racuous live show.
But, to that end, they did immediately launch into a song which saw Adam running around stage in a crazed manner – his usual way. There were sparks of Adam’s former brilliance, though, despite his changed appearance: the folky, hilarious ‘Grandma Shirley & Poppa’ (before launching in Green shouted ‘FOLKUS!’ – thankfully he didn’t lose his all of stage banter skills – although half the time it was nonsense); the all-time classic ‘Drugs’ (although Green didn’t hit the deep notes the way he did previously); and the dancey ‘Emily’. But the stops and starts, which I mentioned that Spacecamp took in dexterous stride, broke up the eveness that I had come to expect from Green. The songs that he made his solo career on are still as wonderful as they ever were, but there was a lack of effervescence, a lack of cohesiveness – a strange disconnect from the audience and even if it was a mostly valliant effort.
But unfortuntely, everything just seemed to fall short. That’s not to say that it wasn’t still entertaining or enthralling – Adam Green puts on a good show but having seen him at a brilliant point in his career where you couldn’t take your eyes off of him (and that’s a mean feat too because following him around on-stage for 40 minutes is an eye-workout) this show just didn’t hit the mark. Perhaps it is his popularity in England, and subsequently his larger venue show did nothing for me compared to seeing him in a closet, but when he took off his leather jacket and exposed some suspicious cuts on his stomach (he let some girl lick it…. WEIRD) I just had to gulp and turn away. This is not the Adam Green I once saw.
6/10
Partial setlist
Grandma Shirley and Poppa
Drugs
Emily
Carolina
Morning After Midnight
What Makes Him Act So Bad
Gobin
Give Us A Token
Buddy Bradley
Dance With Me
Bluebirds
View the rest of my Adam Green photos at FLICKR.
Download -> Adam Green – What Makes Him Act So Bad
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