Jill Lorean / Last Boy

Sold out on a Sunday night… not bad going but then we are talking about Jill and Hayden, two artists who have quite a following around these parts…

BM has to admit that Last Boy had not been on the radar and was only vaguely aware of Hayden’s involvement in The Ninth Wave, however that was rectified tonight when he opened for Jill Lorean tonight.

He played with fairly uniquely distorted/treated guitar effects, along with a series of backing cassette tapes of sonic atmospheres for each track which he clicked into his Tascam machine between songs – old school but very effective. Several trad covers including ‘Boatman’ and ‘Dowie Dens O Yarrow’ were followed by ‘Piece And Pound Coins’, a dark and affecting Ninth Wave song from a couple of years ago.

He finished with ‘I’m a Rover’, another trad song previously lyrically mauled by Aiden Moffat, although the audience were spared the embarrassment of that X-rated version tonight. Hayden referred to working on “other material very different to this” but tonight’s set was hugely impressive, giving the trad covers and his own previous material a further lease of life (infusing them with Sonic Youth-esque feedback and disharmony, plus a very Stuart Braithwaite-esque solo towards the end).

The Jill Lorean band (a trio of Jill, bassist Andy Monaghan and drummer Peter Kelly) were tonight playing the last of a four-date mini-tour – the jaunt must have done them good as they were in terrifically focussed form, probably the best gig of the three BM has seen them promoting the current album (and of course quite a contrast to her solo set opening for the ‘Giant On The Bridge‘ show at Tramway recently.

The sound from the outset was loud and furious, a finely honed weapon of destruction, and, aside for tuning breaks, really did not let up for the almost an hour-long set, which covered a load of back catalogue tracks as well as the current album ‘Peace Cult’.

Of the newer tracks it was probably ‘Late To The Disco’ and ‘Paradise’ which stood out tonight but the overall intensity at times was almost overwhelming. Jill’s vocals were more Patti Smith than anything else, as she dealt out blistering guitar solos and fierce chords above the drums and bass racket. There was a long queue at the merch stand afterwards, which kind of says it all… phew!