Buffalo Bill Returns from the West: Buffalo Tom Live @ Lafayette, London 30/09/24
Sheriff Bill Janovitz and his posse take no prisoners on their brief stop off in the UK
Pic Credit: Thanks Lorraine Lowe
I’m reliably informed by my gig buddy Alex tonight, that it’s 6 years since Bill Janovitz, Chris Colbourn and Tom Maginnis last set foot in the capital. That show was at Camden’s Electric Ballroom#, an historic part of London’s music heritage, having seen the likes of The Clash, Talking Heads, Joy Division, The Ramones, The Specials, Iggy Pop and The Smiths perform on it’s hallowed stage. Tonight’s venue wasn’t even built the last time the band touched down from Boston in 2018. At first glance it looks like an Art Deco music hall, that was unearthed during the gentrification of Kings Cross, boarded up for decades, before being rediscovered and renovated. The 600 capacity space, spread over two floors feels like a shrunken Shepherds Bush Empire. Labyrinthine in design, with decent views from pretty much every vantage point. In reality it is shiny and new and barely 4 years old!
Queuing for tonight’s sold out show, one of only two UK dates on this whistle stop European tour, it is evident that the band’s appeal is primarily with a middle-class, middle-aged white male audience. There’s a smattering of old skool 90’s tee shirts, but plaid shirts out number them 5 to 1. My Crass top stands out like a sore thumb and elicits several comments as we shuffle into place to the left of the stage, prime Janovitz territory.
There’s an expectant air as the pre-gig tunes build up the excitement. It comes as a massive surprise to me, when I discover it’s actually 13 years ago since I last saw them, at the sadly long gone Sound Control venue in Manchester and 13 years before that, at the also long defunct London Astoria! By my calculation I’ll be 75 the next time I see them!!!
Formed in 1986 in Boston, Massachusetts at U-Mass, made famous by the Pixies, the three have been together ever since, never splitting up, just going on a hiatus, releasing 10 studio albums in the process. When not gigging, Bill’s day job is in real estate. He is also a published author, with several books about the Rolling Stones and Leon Russell. In 2008 he started releasing a cover version, every week on his blog. Totalling over a hundred by the time he stopped, it’s this exercise that has given the band an immense library of covers to pull from, to augment their own live set, although it’s something they’ve done since their early days.
As it unfolds, tonight’s set is heavily weighted towards 1992’s Let Me Come Over and 1993’s Big Red Letter Day, with 13 of the 25 songs culled from what are arguably their best albums and the only ones to break into the UK Top 50 chart. Not that commercial success was ever a good arbiter of taste, but I’ll defer to it this time.
Any rigorous adherence to the set list soon disappears, when Bill defers to Chris as to what the next song should be! Buffalo Tom are not a band to be constrained by convention! Despite it being the eve of October, it is predictably warm inside and sweat is soon running off Janovitz’s forehead in rivulets as he crashes and cajoles his guitar through the set. The guitar tech is a busy man as Bill swaps guitars more often than indecisive schizophrenic. He is an absolute technician of wringing its neck to get that measured wail of feedback, which has become a signature of their sound. Only J Mascis does it better and their paths crossed in Boston many moons ago, so who knows who taught who?
What I can say without any fear of contradiction whatsoever, is that tonight, Buffalo Tom are as good as they have ever been. It’s great to hear these songs played live and of the three taken from their most recent Jump Rope LP, Helmet, with it’s line “put your helmet on, cos were going through hell, there’s a damaged captain at the wheel, in case you couldn’t tell”. Seemingly about the state of US politics, it is prime time Buffalo Tom.
Autumn Letter is pure Country/Americana and when Chris sings lead on Recipes I’m minded of a Neil Young song delivered by Stephen Malkmus.
The set is littered with old friends and as with any band that’s been around, there’s always going to be somebody disappointed by their favourite song not making the cut. However, tonight this is pretty much a run through of my favourite BT songs, only the inclusion of Stymied would have improved it for me. My personal #1, Would Not Be Denied sounds as good as ever it did, and still makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up with the lines, “Could I have been misled, Could you have misread, Please don’t punish me, For things I have not said“.
Ending the set by crashing through Tangerine [from Sleepy Eyed] they retreat for a brief rest, before treating us to an incredible 5 song encore, starting and finishing with a cover version.
Sandwiched in the middle of Torch Singer and Crush, its the anthem of a generation of Tom fans, Taillights Fade that elicits the best response. The predictable singalong ensues, presumably as a response to Chris’s earlier comment that he didn’t expect a London audience to be so quiet and passive. And as their taillights metaphorically recede into the distance and the last strangled strains of feedback dissipates, it’s all over.
Like the Frank Carter & The Sex Pistols gig only a week before, this was definitely one of those “you had to be there” moments! Thankfully missing the slavish mobile phone recording habits of a Gen Z audience. This was something that many of the audience tonight, will lock away as a cherished memory until the next time, but please guys don’t leave it so bloody long again!
#History Note: When The Electric Ballroom opened in 1938, it was originally called The Buffalo Club!
Set List
- Staples
- Sodajerk
- Late at Night
- Fortune Teller
- Summer
- Tree House
- Frozen Lake
- Helmet
- Darl
- All Be Gone
- Autumn Letter
- Dry Land
- You’ll Never Catch Him
- Recipes
- Birdbrain
- Would Not Be Denied
- Kitchen Door
- Larry
- I’m Allowed
- Tangerine
Encore:
- Don’t Cry No Tears (Neil Young & Crazy Horse cover)
- Torch Singer
- Taillights Fade
- Crutch
- Under My Thumb (The Rolling Stones cover)
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