Sunday 11 May 2014
£8.50 (+BF)
14+
NUS/Public
Doors: 7.30pm
Club
Fiery young rocker Ezra Furman tours his second solo album, 'Day Of The Dog' - "A savagely truthful set that seems to tear at the fabric of the Chicagoan's very being. Sounding equal parts Bruce Springsteen, Frank Black and Bobcat Goldthwait, Furman yells his unedited inner monologue at you in a serrated howl until spit flies and the muscles on his neck bulge, as Maybe God is a Train barrels towards one of Tim Sandusky's several honking sax solos. The opening chords to At the Bottom of the Ocean get such a whoop from the crowd as to suggest many people quite reasonably think he's covering the Stones' version of Not Fade Away. Furman's exasperated nihilism is never more starkly conveyed than during I Wanna Destroy Myself, specifically the bit when he screams: "I have fallen deep in love with nothing!"
The sucker punch is the way the set subtly comes full-circle with unlikely tenderness. Mysterious Power, a song originally performed with his previous band the Harpoons, had earlier recalled Furman's formative days as a 10-year-old boy in his room cherishing a cassette of 1961 Billboard hits. His penultimate number is an explosive and ridiculously fun take on the Marvelettes' Please Mr Postman � a 1961 Billboard hit. When Furman and the Boy-Friends aren't so much invited to encore by the crowd as ordered, they oblige with the unmistakably elated look of five musicians in a strange town getting a reception they'd never dared anticipate." The Guardian
Fresh off the back of a February tour that has seen Furman playing to growing crowds, and picking up frequent plays on BBC 6Music, this whirlwind of talent brings his electric show to the 53 Degrees stage.
South London trio support, playing 'American-influenced college rock that brims with the bravado and naivety of youth' (NME), musical talent aplenty to match their summery surf-rock.