MJ Hibbett, Jim'll's Brain - The Lamb

Think, think, think. How can I write a review of the actual gig, rather than just channeling my own idiocyncratic iconoclastic channeling of relationship insecurities? Have I already gone too far with two occurances of the word "I"?

There are thirteen people in the room, and a mob of hundreds outside in the street, drinking. Of the thirteen, around five are female, divided broadly evenly between blonde and non-blonde, but a clear trend in polka dots. Of the men, two wear beards and a broad two thirds wear shirts. On the whole, the crowd age range is mid-twentes to late thirties.

MJ Hibbett has tuned his ukulele and kicks off with a song from his Rolling Stone Album of the Year album which hasn't been performed live for seven years. Its alright.

There follows a song about the pretension of the low end hi-fi industry, a wonderful song called "Red & White Sockets".

Next up is Jim'll's Brain, reminds me of a chap from The Mighty Boosh, starts with a song called "Picture in the NME", which played on acoustic guitar, was really nice and make some members of the audience feel warm and fuzzy inside, you can tell by looking and from the minor chords in the chorus. It finishes on a neat unbacked guitar solo.

Second song, "I wish I had legs like Elvis" with dancing, sounds a little like one of the better Oasis B-sides, that little descending guitar line they used to use to tug heart strings.

An 80's electro-rock song, covered acoustically. Robbie from IoMoPS would appreciate it as it came up in our cover version tennis game a few years back. Outside, a high speed police chase with sirens ablazing serves as an excellent middle eight. Police chases, much underused as middle eights.

Is this working? Going through every single song? Have you, dear reader, formed an impression of Jim'll's Brain?

Ooh ooh, little spikey shards of Pete Green, if you love Pete Green, you might live Jim'll's Brain. Sweet and homely acoustic guitar noodles, wonderfully eccentric.

After a short piss/beer/fag break, Hibbett launches into Gay Train, with it classic 'Fresh Prince of Leicester' intro.

Ooh, its a bit special tonight, a few songs he doesn't play live so often, and the banteris on top form. "Bands from London are shit".

A few brief sprints through riffs for his Edinburgh Fringe show. He's almost perfected it but could have taken advantage of someone's mobile phone ringing far more than he did.

Here's the flyer, its going to be very good


Actually it was rather jolly to hear some of the anecdotes, I was nearby when they happened, hundreds of miles away in another place, another girl in my head.

One of the things that I always foeget about these Totally Acoustic things is they're early doorsish, start at 7:30pm and over by 9:30pm and I haven't quite figured how to fit in dinner. So every month, I have my two or three beers on an empty stomach, it goes straight to my head and I go silly.

Last time, I got so silly I escaped during the piss/beer/fag break, phoned Interflor via 118 and ordered flowers for a girl. More of that sort of thing.

Bands
MJ Hibbett
Jim'll's Brain