Thursday 10.02.08: KURT WAGNER (Lambchop) / THE CHAPIN SISTERS @ echoplex

Posted by samantha - filed in events

Kurt Wagner || Listen || Watch

Kurt Wagner is currently basking in more acclaim than he can shake a shitty stick at. The success of his band (and it is his band) Lambchop’s ‘Nixon’ album has placed him in his rightful position as one of alt-country’s leading lights – most of tonight’s crowd would quite happily slap the label ‘legend’ onto his baseball cap. You only have to hear how darn quiet it is in here, a hushed reverence is awarded only to those who have earned it in cynical old London town. Oh, and they laugh at all his jokes.

But has Wagner earned his kudos? Well, you only have to hear ‘Nixon’’s opener, the fragile ‘The Old Gold Shoe’, stripped of it’s 14-strong band, to realise that these songs sound as towering even with just an acoustic guitar and some weird, taped sound effects. So far, so good. When he breaks into his Curtis Mayfield falsetto on ‘You Masculine You’ he is so astonished at the awed reaction that he can’t help but chuckle at himself self-consciously. And, of course, we chuckle along. – NME

with:
The Chapin Sisters || Listen

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026