DougW. 
Tash Jayasinghe
Cibbuano
Euros Childs Live At The Spitz! Pics! Words!
July 22nd 2006 16:06
Euros Childs & Band
Euros Childs tonight deals so deftly with a restlessly hot audience in the Spitz (temperatures reached an unprecedented six million degrees in the capital tonight) that the sweat dripping from people's faces magically did an about-face and trickled happily back into the pores. After some terrible support act is finished sounding like Britpop dry-humping the corpse of the Kinks, Childs and his merry band of very child-like friends shamble onto the stage (except the drummer, who looks about sixty) and let the magic spew forth.
Material from Childs's first album, 'Chops', is rather scarce compared to earlier gigs in the year, with a great deal of tonight's set composed of new material. Possibly with the confirmed split of Childs's former band, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Childs's new material will be given the consideration it deserves, not just as an offshoot of the cult Welsh Wizards. Indeed, there are a few shouts for Gorky's songs as the set progresses, but the strength of the newer songs is more than enough to quiet such errant suggestions. Opener 'Bore Da' is hilariously chirpy and buoyed by utterly perfect vocal harmonies, while Billy And The Sugarloaf Mountain is sheer devastation in a folk guise, stomping over the guts of anyone who thought 'Chops' was a tad twee.
With more than a few stories to tell about being in prison with the world's greatest slap-bass player and a particularly hilarious face-off with a forty-year-old woman, Childs's ability to bind spells over his audience extends to heartbreakingly honest love songs and stinking murder ballads that are as ferocious as they are fun. It is his pure warmth of delivery that pleases the most this evening. When the rest of his band leaves the stage for chillingly naïve piano plodder Circus Time, the magic of the artist's live performances is at its most evident. Gently his feet spaz across the sustain pedals, while the eyes remain firmly shut. Only the voice and piano are important, urging us to 'skip with me to Circus Time'.
By the time Euros Childs reaches folk expand-athon First Time I Saw You, the audience will happily watch him crap on a sheep, such is our involvement in the show. Luckily it doesn't come to that, and the song continues in its inimitable casio-folk fashion. With the last few octave oscillations rolling around the room, Childs & Co. depart, only to emerge again for a boomingly received encore. It is a joy to see music such as this being played live – there is no greater focus than melody and harmony, stopping between those points only for a bit of squeegee noise here and there, joyously revelling in its acoustic heritage but still swathed in synth enough to cause minor bowel movements at the press off a key. Euros Childs is looking towards a second album that will cement him as a composer of some of the finest pop songs of this generation.
Go to Euros's website to download a free Live EP - you'll kick yourself if you don't.
And PM managed to swipe a setlist as well! What a perfect evening... pics of the set list to follow soon (i.e. next time I'm near a scanner and have remembered to pack properly).
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