ADAM GREEN
Dingwalls, Camden | 24 January
Since his early noughties split from The Moldy Peaches, singer/songwriter Adam Green has largely replaced the cute, scruffy recordings made with Kimya Dawson et al with dreamy, sweary, and very funny ballads. For someone so prolific in his output (seven studio albums between 2002 and 2010), Green seems to have slowed things down a little more recently – last year’s duet album with Binki Shapiro was his first LP release in three years. So this acoustic show at a packed Dingwalls is a welcome opportunity to see Green perform his excellent solo material for the first time in a while.
Tonight he dresses as a pirate-captain hybrid, in a frilled shirt, waistcoat and some kind of nautical official’s hat. There’s no explanation for this – maybe because we’re next to Camden Lock? He comes backed only by Moldy Peaches’ guitarist Toby Goodshank. Whilst a competent guitarist himself, having Goodshank provide the only instrumentation for much of the show frees up Green to fully focus on his deep crooning and impish movements with a huge grin on his face.
It ends up being a rather special show; Green’s songs are stripped down to their bare bones, highlighting the perfect simplicity of them, whilst his lyrics are allowed to hang clearly in the air. Early on he plays a narcotic celebration double-header of Pay The Toll followed by Drugs, both from 2006’s Jacket Full of Danger. Whilst these songs are, at their heart, fun ditties, the cleverness of his couplets become emphasised in this setting, like Drugs’ refrain of “Oh, my baby couldn’t shave me that day / When my lady threw my drugs away”.
Green playfully jaunts his way through the remainder of the set with renditions of classics including Gemstones and Emily, as well as a lovely new number entitled That’s How They Call The Blues, which he announces will be on the soundtrack for a new film he is making called Aladdin.
After an hour of playing with Goodshank, Green returns to the stage alone to perform an encore containing songs from his most commercially successful album, 2003’s Friends of Mine, with I Wanna Die, Jessica Simpson and No Legs providing an opportunity for a singalong. Set closer The Prince’s Bed encapsulates Green: witty, beautiful, yet oftentimes smutty lyrics set to very pretty music.
– – – – – – – – – –
Words: Jack Bolter
CONNECT TO CRACK
