Ezra Furman and the Boyfriends on stage at The Glee Club
I first got turned-on to Ezra Furman sometime in 2013 due to the patronage of Marc Riley on 6Music. The following May he played a late afternoon slot at the Dot To Dot Festival in the Rescue Rooms. It was perfect timing. It was a blazing hot day, I was about four ciders in, and spirits were high. It was a breezy, passionate performance and Ezra had a strange intensity to him. It drew me in. And it was by far and away the best thing I saw all day. I was hooked.
Fast-forward eighteen months and he has released one of the albums of the year in Perpetual Motion People. With its themes of identity and belonging it feels like a much more personal affair than previous album Day of the Dog. It has clearly resonated with a lot of people as tonight’s venue is rammed out.
Ezra Furman and his band The Boyfriends have a sound that sits somewhere in between fifties rock 'n’ roll and classic sixties pop with a bit of early Dylan and the E-Street Band thrown in for good measure. Although that last one could just be because of the presence of a saxophone giving it that extra soulful oomph. The sound is as all-American as cherry pie and hating communists.
Tonight is the last date of their European tour and if fatigue has set in to their tired bones it doesn’t show during the almost hour and a half the band play for. Decked out in beads, dress, and a bit of lippy, the intensity from the previous year has morphed in to something else. The Ezra Furman we get tonight is bashful and playfully shy, yet fiercely passionate when in the midst of a song; that raspy, throaty voice a conduit of spittle-flecked emotion as he sings. It’s much more punk rock than any leather clad poseur.
He’s in good humour too, joking at one point that his old record label once asked him to write a hit, he obliged and then put it out as a B-side, before then going in to the song in question, Caroline Jones.
Opening with Day of the Dog, both its parent album and Perpetual Motion People are given equal billing. Although, for me, even if it feels a little unfair choosing some songs over another in what is a hugely entertaining and engaging evening, it’s the doo-wop rock 'n’ roll of the latter that really lift tonight. Lousy Connection, Ordinary Life, Body Was Made all sound thrilling and it's exciting watching a songwriter and performer at the peak of his game.
A cover of The Velvet Underground’s Rock & Roll in the encore is a nice nod to Ezra Furman’s obvious love of that classic American rock sound and aligns one great outsider artist with another.
Ezra Furman performed at The Glee Club Nottingham on Wednesday 18 November 2015.
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