neil halstead
monday, february 18, 2002 • sonic boom records, seattle wa • review & pics from janice


review: First off, I just wanna say that from now on, I'm leaving the picture-taking to Mike! ; ) As you can see, my pics turned out horrible. I foolishly thought I could stand at the back of the record store and just zoom in. Next time, I'm getting up to the front of the club. Lesson learned. Right. : )

This was my first time to see Neil in person, despite years of being a fan of his projects from Slowdive through high school to Mojave 3 later on. From the sad, plaintive songs he writes, I really expected him to be more dour in person. I was quite surprised to find him chatty and charming! He looks like a skinnier Matthew Sweet and was working that torn-up denim look. And, British people always have the best footwear.

Neil has such a lovely, resonant voice and even with only an acoustic guitar and occasional harmonica bit, his songs were very full and rich. On the other hand, Mike said his songs sounded too similar to him, and he was bored at the show. So, hey, there's another perspective for ya.

Sadly, Neil was having a bit of an Elliott Smith moment, and he kept forgetting lyrics to his songs and stopping and starting again. He apologized over and over again. At one point, he said it had been an emotional past couple of days. Mike later commented that he thought Neil was kidding.

One of the songs he couldn't finish was a gentle cover of The Flaming Lips' "Waitin' For A Superman" which is a song I think everyone knows I love. ; ) It was a really lovely cover, but then wouldn't you know it? Neil flubbed a lyric or two, got frustrated and stopped singing.

Oh, well, I still thought it was a dreamy show! And, hey, it was free, and we love free! ; ) But he said he would be coming back in April, and that he would practise more before then. : )