Dan Sartain The Lexington, London 15/9/09
4/5
By: Steve Rose
Without a monk’s haircut, a Billy Childish-esque ten year discography, or being a c*nt ala GG Allen; it seems that the main appeal of tonight's heartbreaker Dan Sartain is the fact that he is completely and absolutely awesome.
Hailing from a lost heritage of garage rock, soul and punk rock, via Birmingham, Alabama; he brings his brusque, yet passionate tales of loves lost, found and forgotten to The Lexington; obviously 'Islington's finest new music venue'.
After a couple of exceptionally mediocre support acts, the skinny, slicked back twenty something takes the centre stage armed only with a guitar, some 'woooaaahs', and one hell of a guitar sound. Charismatically whipping through 'Walk Amongst the Cobras pt I', and 'Replacement Man', solo; our protagonist is then joined by Andy on drums and eventually "another skinny white guy on bass". He renders his woe, with fervor and elegence, whilst spitting out blood and vile towards 'hanger-ons', 'drama queens' and anyone who steps out of line!
Working his way through the rest of the 'Walk Amongst the Cobras' trilogy, and the majority of Dan Sartain vs The Serpientes and Join Dan Sartain, his southern charm, superior musicianship and soaring vocal gymnastics carries though. The encore, delivered in an ironic manor, is raging, raucous and crowd pleasing at the same time. Ultimately crashing through the sets highlight, an as yet untitled new song.
As a modern day Bukowski once said, "I don't want to join Dan Sartain...I want to be Dan Sartain".
Artists in this article: Dan Sartain
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