With a new album in the form of ‘Mr Luck & Ms Doom‘ The Delines returned to what has become their London home, the spacious Union Chapel which provides a guarantee of good sightlines and, naturally, has great acoustics and a perfect stage for a five piece band. It’s impossible to imagine that any reader of Americana UK is not familiar with The Delines who regularly top our “best of” lists and who are also amongst our favourites to interview, but let’s just give some credit up front to bass player Freddy Trujillo, Sean Oldham on drums and Cory Gray on keyboards and trumpet. That snappily dressed guitar player is of course Willy Vlautin which must mean that the sass and vocals were provided by the inimitable Amy Boone who is – she would inform us – having the best time of her life with The Delines.
It was a set built around the new album with fully seven songs taken from it, but with so many of the songs having been road tested over the last year, there was no lack of familiarity to contend with. These are songs that bring in a new aspect to The Delines – a little more upbeat in places, and some of the characters are almost having a good time – well, maybe they’re surviving is closer to the mark. Not that the older material was completely neglected, but here the focus was on several of the more obscure releases from Record Store Day limited pressings rather than the more widely known main albums.
Things set off with the soulful title track of the new album, with two characters – one just out of prison the other living in her car – who have the good fortune to find each other. It’s a love story, with some tough edges: “He always saves her from her self-inflicted ruin / She holds their money and makes the rules.” The mystery surrounding the funky soul of ‘Maureen’s Gone Missing‘ is exactly what she’s done to cause so many bad hombres to come looking for her. Well, the money’s gone – and so has the narrator’s car – but there’s some hope, if she can get the thing to get her far enough away. Optimism, of a sort, for The Delines.
And then Amy Boone took us back “to the Gulf of Mexico” for the slow and languid ‘Little Earl‘ which does that thing The Delines can do so well – pack a whole noir film into just a few minutes.
Willy Vlautin’s guitar fills were particularly effective on the brooding slow boiling rage of ‘Haunted Place‘ as Amy Boone rails against the family who treated her like nothing…but now she’s got something, they remember how much she owes them. New song ‘Nancy & the Pensacola Pimp‘ is dark, even for The Delines, a story of breaking free of abuse that requires drastic action – that it’s married to a slow-dancing funky tune, once more including Cory Gray’s combination of keys and trumpet, just makes it more effectively chilling. Chilling in its own way is the breathless timeless endless moment of ‘Surfers In Twilight‘ – a song whose scene lasts seconds – a woman sees her man being arrested, looks into his eyes and knows ‘whatever they think he’s done, he’s guilty.‘ There’s so much space in the song, it’s a perfect ache of disappointment, self awareness and acceptance.
Not that The Delines are always on a downer. ‘My Blood Bleeds The Darkest Blue‘ was preceded by light hearted back and forth banter about how “Willy and I are going to get into a big argument” before taking a surreal sidestep about the songs we never get to hear and to give a pre-warning that their next album – the controversial trucker record – is “the one not to buy.” The song – taken from ‘The Lost Duets‘ – is an imaginative duel of how a couple would like to see each other die, and how good those thoughts make them feel. It’s got a grunting chain gang as a backing and makes Vlautin momentarily sound like Slaid Cleaves and when Amy joins in she takes the song deep into Lee and Nancy territory. Meanwhile ‘Left Hook Like Fraizer‘ might well be the finest Motown song not to come from Motown with the very danceable – if we weren’t firmly in our pews – melody, and a cool groove. Add in some of the slyest lyrics on how to take your life from heartbreak to something worse in easy steps. What a song.
The set closed out with the lovely ‘Don’t Think less Of Me‘ from the “soundtrack” to ‘The Night Always Comes‘ (which, by-the-by is a read in 0ne sitting kind of novel), with Amy Boone doing the band introductions before leaving the stage whilst the band jammed on. And the encore started with the band, without Amy, retaking the stage for the instrumental ‘Lynette’s lament‘, which is a brooding and desolate Cory Gray composition. We were taken all the way back to the beginning of The Delines with ‘Calling In‘ from ‘Colfax‘, slow and melodic and with Sean Oldham’s brushed drumming picking out the sultry mood. A mood that carried forward into the make-do love faced with the reappearance of true love of ‘The Imperial‘. And then a special closing moment, accompanied only by keyboards Amy Boone led on ‘Dilauded Diane‘ whilst the rest of her band mates huddled around a single microphone as backing singers the whole making the most of those aforementioned great acoustics.
The Delines are going from strength to strength, the only regret being that every new wonderful album pushes songs from earlier wonderful albums off the set list. It can’t be avoided.
The opening support on this UK tour has come from Peter Bruntnell, who would later be rightly praised by Willy Vlautin for his song writing. It’s a very British rock and roll, reminiscent in lyrical tone of Richard Thompson. With a three piece line-up of Dave Little on electric guitar and Peter Noone on bass, Bruntnell opened his half hour with ‘Houdini And the Sucker Punch‘ the title track from his latest album. It’s an album that would get a revisit for ‘Sharks‘ with its imagery of the dreamed of desirable easy life of the surfer that Bruntnell isn’t, and the sharks who roam the land making real life harder than it needs to be.
His between song banter is a mixture of self-deprecation and stories that are straight ahead designed to bum you out and lower your mood. Take the discussion of ‘Long Way From Home‘ which leant into the endless driving back and forth to London for gigs when he’d relocated to Devon. It’s a song that also touches on thoughts about ageing, which has Bruntnell more than ruefully noting that a lot of time has passed. It’s a song that also mocks, in a way, the optimistic predictions of ‘You Won’t Have To Cry‘, The Byrds tune which it echoes quite distinctly.
What can we say about Peter Bruntnell? He can be, as on this night, the poet of despair – the musical equivalent of sitting in an old chair in a cold damp room, in the dark with a bottle of vodka that somehow has become half full. If the Delines touch the cinemagraphic in their songs about day to day struggles and perpetual disappointment then Peter Bruntnell is ‘Play For Today‘. after a budget cut. An excellent scene setter for The Delines, in other words.
Smashing review Jonathan. You’re right, The Delines are the sum of some outstanding parts. Vlautin is in charge of the narratives but Amy is just such a special watch. I was at the Glasgow gig. Must be something about the celestial settings. Such a feeling of contentment after the gig.There is nothing to compare toThe Delines.
We saw them in Nottingham. A brilliant concert. A great review thanks.