What Blur fans see in Graham Coxon's walking werewolf guitar histrionics is anyone's guess. One thing is clear, Damon Albarn and co do not specialise in incoherent and unhinged US lo-fi garage rock. Unlike their errant guitar hero, who despite lifting pretty much zero from the Blur canon of ideas, attracted a bulging and ecstatic crowd to the Evening Session stage this evening.
There is clearly an appeal and at times tonight, Coxon and his band including Blur drummer Dave Rowntree were absolutely sensational. If being clouted over the head by sheet after sheet of guitar noise tickles your fancy. And that's saying nothing for Rowntree's impossibly elastic percussive rampaging.
'All I Wanna Do' opened the set, with Coxon, whose rabbit in the headlights personality is the absolute antithesis of his explosive solo material, explaining 'my life feels so brown.' Cheers for that Graham. It is, after all, very difficult to break down the barriers his character hides behind, with the fearsome, gutterall riffing of 'All I Wanna Do', 'The Fear' and 'I Wish', portraying a man totally handicapped by his superstar fate.
In fact, his childlike expressions come across as terminally wounded, here in the shape of the trying 'My Idea Of Hell', 'Fags and Failure' and the ranting, five-year-old tantrums of 'Leave Me Alone'. He also found it impossible to acknowledge the constant and comical chants of 'Graham', let alone a spotaneous shout of 'Colchester', Blur's hometown.
However, there were plenty of moments that totally vindicated his decision to record alone and indeed stand alone. Particularly impressive were the Mission Of Burma covers 'Fame And Fortune' and 'That's When I Reach For My Revolver', which Coxon dedicated to frontman Roger Miller, 'one of the best ever songwriters'.
The reception throughout was feverishly positive, but still a world away from what you can expect from these fans when Blur return later this year. That really will be worth seeing.
