Graham Coxon & Switches - London Astoria - 25/10/06
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Tonight would be a fantastic night to be in Switches. True, most nights are probably fun in the Switches camp - they're young, none of them are fat, they play music for a living. But I'm in the presence of one of my heroes tonight in a certain Mr. Coxon, and judging by this performance (and the fact that they openly admit between songs to studying his skills on the guitar as kids), they think just as highly of the guy as I do. It's everywhere in their sound. The difference is that I'm watching them support Mr C whilst I rue never giving that whole band thing a proper go. Like I do every day of my life.
So go on kids, do it - be like Switches. Well, maybe not exactly like them - there are of course quite a few around at the minute attempting a similar sound, and whilst these boys, especially in singles such as the ska influenced and infectious 'Lay Down The Law' and more recent effort 'Message to Yuz', inject the whole thing with enough gusto to warrant their place on the stage, you'd have to be damn clever to make sure your own efforts don't fall flat like those of so many others. So what makes these fellas different?
My two penneth is that Switches are succeeding because everyone who watches them, be they enjoying it like myself or indifferent / hostile towards it, couldn't debate how clearly and confidently these boys come across. Coxon's sound is there - they seem to especially like 'The Great Escape' and even have a track that sounds, for thirty seconds or so at least, identical to Blur's nearly-single 'It Could Be You' - but his bumbling stage presence hasn't influenced Switches whatsoever. They don't just act like they own the stage, they act like they own the Astoria, they own London, they own you. Some might judge this to be arrogance. Switches are so absolutely assured of their own greatness that they wouldn't care.
Graham Coxon still looks entirely embarrassed to be in a band at all - between songs, that is. Tonight's show, which is being recorded for a double live album available minutes after the set's end (and so goes on for ages), sees the mid-song Coxon throwing himself about the stage, jubilantly shouting and ranting in a manner I've never seen (and this must be about the millionth time I've caught the fella live). Who can blame him? What's presented tonight is after all probably the best collection of songs that will have ever graced a GC setlist. He's celebrating.
He draws from each of his solo albums, as if in mockery of the new folk who only jump about to 'Freakin' Out' and wouldn't consider giving the same praise to 'I Wish' or his incendiary cover of Mission of Burma's 'That's When I Reach For My Revolver'. Those early highlights which see Graham demonstrating his love of noisy experimental lo fi rock sit comfortably alongside the rarely aired melancholic thumps of 'Big Bird' and the more recent 'I Don't Wanna Go Out', which is perhaps his finest song to date.
However it's in the throwaway pop punk nuggets that the crowd delight most, 'You and I', 'Spectacular' and laughably off the cuff new single 'What You Gonna Do Now?' each going down remarkably well with beery, jumping loons. But look at the boy - look at him with his back on the floor, feet rested on his amplifier, smacking his face against the guitar making an ungodly squall of noise. Don't focus too much on the pop songs. This is when he's happiest. It's also when I, personally, am most happy with him.
Your Feedback
Login to post your comment