A fierce Brixton sun was just edging out the June clouds as I ascended Bleinham gardens on saturday afternoon. A loose collective of half-clad freaks were milling around the entrance, acting like conference fans at the FA cup final. They were, after all, about to support the mighty Jeffrey Lewis, of The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane fame and direct from New York City, Home of Anti-Folk. He was here with his band today, so we were in for a ride.

The best I can do for the support act is fail to remember their name. Singing alone, the lead singer presented their sizeable audience with two irritating noises and barely a wry grin in compensation. While one did sympathise with his endless refrain of “Man, don’t it suck that you got to grow up”, it was only because the lyric seemed so peculiarly appropriate to the guy singing them. Your correspondant fled.

To the main event. Jeff has been making wonderful, personal music of beguiling melodies and winning stories for longer than you would suspect he has been alive for. He also writes hilarious, intruiging and frequently illuminating comics which you can get, along with all his albums, from his website.. He harnesses this eloquent mastery of two mediums to create what he describes as the ‘low budget music video’: massive comics, with approximately one page per lyric. Animation provided by his very own arm, turning the page. As well as bringing to life some of his more fantastical (and moving) songs such as “Creeping Brain”, he uses this concept to fill in the gaps in his audience’s historical knowledge, covering topics such as “The History of Punk on the Lower East Side” and “The Rise of Communism in China”. Look him up on YouTube.

This afternoon, however, was not for the study of history but for reliving it, at least partly. In honour what would have been Kurt Cobain’s 40th birthday, Jeff had been asked to perform some Nirvana songs at a benefit concert. Why just do a song when you can make a video?* Certainly not to free up your hands. The songs were sung a cappella, and the riffage was honestly not missed. When it comes to a performance of “Big Cheese” or “Mr Moustache” (both from the seminal Bleach album) the clarity of illustration was a fair trade for moshpit mayhem. Sample lyric Jeff shed new light on:

Yes I eat cow- I am not proud.
Easy in an easy chair
poop as hard as rock
I don’t like you anyway
Seal it in a box

It would be a shame to focus on grunge at a Jeff Lewis gig though. One of my favourite lyricists, he combines often-chronic shyness with astonishing frankness and an impeccable taste for the bizarre. This latter attribute has often been put down to drug-induced visions, an unfortunate side-effect of releasing a song with the word ‘Acid’ in the title. When it got to the point that shows were attracting the pushy unwashed offering their wares, a halt was called with the song “We Don’t Want No LSD Tonight” from the excellent City & Eastern Songs (2005). Demons thoroughly exorcised, neither song was necessary today and Jeff, his brother Jack on bass and friend Dave Beauchamp on drums were able to showcase a raft of new material alongside a pack of hits from that album and beyond. They even snuck in a Crass cover. Jeff’s acoustic guitar morphed at will from an instrument of gentle finger-picking to delightful punk caterwauling, and as ever he made sure to inform us of it’s idiosyncrasies. The already excellent and flexible trio were augmented by Dave from the Wave Pictures on ukulele and voice. Along with a mysterious keyboard I later discovered to be under the control of Jeff’s foot, he leant a real depth to the sound that brought familiar songs to life.

Dangerously close to stealing the show when given the chance to sing one of his own, Dave shied the limelight on the whole and supported with aplomb. The break allowed one to reflect and compare the occasion with Jeff’s solo perfomances. On their own terms, the Jitters put on a fantastic show, and can only be criticised comparitively. While the visceral rhythm section of Jack and Dave allowed the band to cut loose on punkier tracks like “Time Machine”, as well as lending an extra dimension to slow-burners such as “SpringTime (from The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane), they also took something away. The songs rarely need accompaniment beyond Jeffs delicate finger-picking, and while I was delighted at the chance to jump around, I partly regretted not being able to absorb the new songs in their entirety. So go see the Jeffrey Lewis band and have a great time. If you want to be astonished, catch him alone.

Many thanks to Jacqui Sadler for the excellent photos.

G

*Readers who consider this a serious question will have their correspondence met with particularly long sighs.