Sometimes you don’t want a meal deal; you just want the treat, and that’s what tonight was about. Bear with me on this. Felice Brothers: back in London tonight, the chance to see the band close-up in a legendary London basement-level venue. They make their way through the crowd. Once on stage, James vamps a smoky waltz on piano. Ian is nowhere to be seen, and Will (drums) and Jesske (bass) improvise in the void. Ian pops up meerkat-style as if he had been crouched behind an amp. He was probably just adjusting the treble, but this band can be silly and funny without even trying. They launch into an ironically rousing version of Valium: “my happiness is touch and go/kinda like this hotel’s HBO”
The set is a mix of Ian Felice and James Felice songs; there’s no lulls here, even the two new unheard songs, one a reflective ballad by James and one by Ian, are enthusiastically picked up by the crowd, taking no time to join in the chorus: “Some sweet day/spring will come in the USA”.
Ian mishears a call from the crowd: “Music School? – is that what you said – nah, it’s too late now,” he laughs. But who needs music school when you can perform the gentle Wonderful Life with such passion. They may have had a deliberately scruffy, ramshackle appearance, but now that is more a part of the way that they perform. They are tight but loose, and the mic moves because James hits the piano so hard, and his physiotherapist tells him he probably shouldn’t play accordion anymore, but he carries on anyway.
Considering their twenty-year career span, James and Ian are surprisingly youthful. They recalled their previous gig at 100 Club (their first in London), in 2008. I think of what some of the British rock/prog acts who played in ’68 might have looked like if they had revisited the 100 Club in ’86; certainly not as edgy and relevant as the Felices were tonight.
The set is a sprinkling of Felice classics (Frankie’s Gun, Penn Station) but also plenty of material from the last three albums, all popular with fans. Ian still chuckles at some of his own rhymes, even though he’s sung them a thousand times. And why not? One of his gifts is being able to take stock country song subject matter and turn it into something more surreal, comic, or scary; for example, The Kid, the tale of the war veteran struggling with civilian life, turned into a beautiful piece of poetic, mythical Americana. “It’s left at the fork to Cairo, New York and that’s where I’m stranded in sorrow/ But how can I go, the field’s deep in snow and no buses run till tomorrow”.
There are two new projects on the horizon: Felice Country Fair has the likes of Brandon Flowers, Dawes, Old Crow Medicine Show, Deer Tick, Nathaniel Rateliff, and Bebe Stockwell covering Felice songs, which is pretty special. The Felices have a new album, yet unnamed and upcoming in spring, followed by a promotional tour; and James and Will are playing Green Note on 10th Sept. Ian quips, “Well, I think me and Jesske might do a show somewhere else that same night!”
Tonight was a treat.
