1 post tagged “jesse malin”
It was hot by the time Jesse Malin walked on to stage. Joseph's Well attained that thing it rarely achieves: a full house.
On the road again, still touring to promote his album The Heat, Jesse is not a picture of health. That forehead-hugging hair crowns a ghostly, pale face. The late nights must take their toll but he still can't seem to leave us alone.
It's a stripped down line-up. It's just Malin with his acoustic and Christine Smith with piano, pout and tie. For a musician whose songs are so personal this more intimate format works well. The music's quality is clear despite the relative lack of electrification and stripping away the slick production of 'The Heat', the second album's songwriting reveals itself as superior to the first.
A good song should sound great if it's played in its simplest form. Malin himself admits that its great to get back and play the songs how they were initially written. The pared-down approach brings a fresh clarity to Since You're in Love. During Wendy, Smith takes the album's electric riff and makes it her own. She has chance to linger on the worthy opening phrases of Arrested and make a few organ stabs during Brooklyn. It's a show where particularly the more emotional songs come through and shine.
It's now expected that Jesse indulges his fans with a bit of banter. He's like the old friend who always tells the same jokes but just gets funnier and funnier. So, the Barbara Streisand anecdote is on hand again as well as musings about Sinatra's drinking habits. Songwriter and funnyman, Malin always makes it all look so natural but given his chattiness and good humour, it sometimes jars that most of his lyrics deal with melancholy, loss and other grievances. It's an inconsistency we're happy to forgive but who would have thought a man who wrote an album called 'The Fine Art of Self-Destruction' could be such a nice man.
Some covers close the show. 'Death or Glory' and 'Oliver's Army' are live mainstays but Graham Parker's 'Three Martini Lunch' made a late surprise appearance too. Judging by Malin's wan appearance it's probably a joke-to-self.
