Two years to the day since last album, Perpetual Motion People came out, Ezra Furman brings backing band The Boy-friends to The Rescue Room to light up an otherwise ordinary Thursday evening.
In support are local faves, Babe Punch warming up for their single launch the night after and an appearance at The Waterfront Festival on Saturday. Their high energy punky cum grungey sound is in full effect, although I didn't expect them to be covering Wicked Game by Chris Izaak. They also give an airing to brand new song Judy Moody and close their set with their latest single Control. They're as good as they always are and are a nice aperitif to the main course of Ezra.
After a proper old school rock 'n' roll revue intro, Ezra Furman goes on to describe Perpetual Motion People as having "a couple of good songs on it" before launching into Haunted Head. This was followed by the Bo Diddly-esque At The Bottom Of The Ocean. I found And Maybe God Is A Train from first album with The Boy-fiends, Day Of The Day, really apposite as it reminded me of the book Sirens Of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut, which one just finished reading.
On support band Babe Punch, Ezra says, "I thought it was just a cool name but then I saw them back stage and they were punching a baby!" They then kick into My Zero, which I thought was the highlight of the evening, a great song.
It's a really eclectic mix of songs including b-side The Prisoner, of which Ezra says, "I wish this was my only song about being trapped in a basement". Down, a song about "making daddy proud" is played as a two-piece and has a real fragility to it. Then, even the keyboardist leaves and Ezra plays brand new song So Bad alone and there are visible smiles as a couple of mistakes are made due to unfamiliarity with the song. A cover of Androgynous by The Replacements follows and then the rest of the band return.
As Ezra says of the gig, "I love this shit. If I lived here, I'd come here". Lousy Connection has a real 50's feel, followed by another protest song, The Day Of The Dog. The set ends with a cover of the Jackie Wilson song (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher, which features a Police Squad-esque freeze frame about half way through. And then Ezra Furman and the Boy-friends depart and every member of the audience makes their way into the night with smiles upon their faces.
Ezra Furman played the Rescue Rooms on the 6th of July
We have a favour to ask
LeftLion is Nottingham’s meeting point for information about what’s going on in our city, from the established organisations to the grassroots. We want to keep what we do free to all to access, but increasingly we are relying on revenue from our readers to continue. Can you spare a few quid each month to support us?
