Graham Coxon – The Soul Tree, Cambridge, 12/05/09

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Photo via Myspace

It’s a bit busy tonight. Rumours abound of Mr. Damon Albarn in the crowd as well. There’s a sense of people being here “to see someone”. Makes it a bit of a strange atmosphere to be honest, as one part of the newly reunited Blur, Mr. Graham Coxon, takes to the tiny stage. Of course, the crowd are going to be very disappointed if they were hoping for a couple of Blur numbers to be sneaked into the setlist. Tonight, Coxon is promoting his newly released solo album The Spinning Top. Less art-school pop, more Nick Drake Folk.

What strikes you most about seeing Coxon so close and intimate is just HOW good a guitarist he is. Sure, you read about it, people mention it in the press, but until you see him finger picking his acoustic guitar, coaxing beautiful fresh chords out of his instrument of choice, you can’t fully appreciate it. There’s also his vocals. On the weedy side of things on record, tonight, as the evening progresses, they flesh out and sound fuller. The shy performer of old is still there, at least initially, but once the glasses come off and he starts to feel at home everything nicely slots together.

The first half of the evening is nicely stacked with tasters from this new folk direction – sounding nicely rounded with his simplistic approach this evening; just a drummer and bass guitarist to help him out. The music is heavily rooted in folk traditions. There’s echoes of Nick Drake and Bert Jansch in this material, but there’s also a Jazz element as well – the brushed drumming and free flowing rhythms that bring to mind Pentangle and Fairpoint Convention at their most adventerous. Almost as a nod to this, we get Coxon braking out a clarinet as well for a musical interlude, but it’s quickly returned to its stand.

Coxon then announces “That’s the end of the pretty songs!”, and the electric guitar comes out. What we get next are glimpses of his self-confessed love for Pavement and America’s guitar bands. There’s the hack saw riffs, flashes of feedback and twisted chords that characterized his influence over Blur’s noisier moments. The rest of the set see-saws between this nod to the past and his newly embraced folk future. Alternating between electric and acoustic guitars, the risk of the night being one-paced with his newer direction is neatly averted.

Whilst some of the crowd are restless at his decision to stick with this newer material, and the fact that, when the Soul Tree venue is full, the view of stage is quite limited, there’s plenty of onlookers who appreciate and celebrate his set. There’s a riot of noise for him to come back with an encore and maybe, just maybe, he spoils it by playing a cover of an older folk song, rather than blasting us back into the night with a wave of squalling feedback. But then, perhaps, this is the biggest insight we’re likely to get into enigma that is, and always has been, Graham Coxon – that he’s always done what he’s wanted to rather than other people expect him to.

Graham Coxon on Myspace