Willis Earl Beal – The Victoria, London 09/03/12

Word to the vogue, Chicago soul child Willis Earl Beal is bringing toothpicks and wayfarers back. The 27 year-old crunch blues singer whose tapes are quickly spinning into every hispter’s analog set since signing to Hot Charity/XL earlier this year, gives East London the first taste of his vintage vocalese at the Dalston Victoria tonight.

The buzzing undercuts and swaying fringes that are collected in the packed room fall to a hush as the self-titled outsider seates himself in his high-waisted Levi’s and snakeskin boots, and pours himself a measured glass of rum and coke. To think that less than a year ago Beal was using hand-written flyers to promote his LP and living under his grandmother’s roof would be cringe-worthy if it weren’t completely true. Fairytales aside, Beal’s lustrous Chicago steeze transforms this grimy music hall into a 50’s Chi-town jazz club. Even the most retro leather-jacketed scenesters in the audience seem of another time in Beal’s nostalgic aura.

Swooping and snapping into an a capella rendition of his heartbreaker ‘Wavering Lines’, Beal’s dirty blues shadows a ripe Tom Waits’ with the lo-fi down strokes of an early Guided By Voices cassette-tape. ‘Take Me Away’ trembles like a lost soul, but rises into a fist-clinching thriller before falling back into a waning croon to soothe the audience. His dark lyrical account of love and disappointment ‘Evening Kiss’ is perhaps the needle in the haystack of his live set and ambles like a crumpled up love letter with a cross-legged Beal strumming an electric guitar on his lap.

Willis Earl Beal owns tonight: the stomp of his bluesy boot and Chicago soul howl may place him more appropriately in the sixties soul scene but – like all authentic art – his music exists outside of time. And this is only his tenth live show ever.

Woody Black