Badly Drawn Boy
Famously, but affably, grumpy Damon Gough of Badly Drawn Boy took to the stage at Le Poisson Rouge last night and announced that he was thinking about giving up gigging altogether; he hates to be away from home and for this two-week US tour he was missing his daughter’s tenth birthday. (Happy birthday, mini-Gough!) But the self-effacing and curmudgeonly stage persona is just a smoke screen for his warm melodies and generous nature. This tour features Damon mostly acoustic, with just a couple of “mates” stepping in occasionally on second guitar parts and bass lines. Last night the loose set list (“What do you want to hear?”) was made up of some deep catalog tracks and lots of material from his new album “It’s What I’m Thinking : Part 1—Photographing Snowflakes.” He dedicated one of his new songs to Andy Rourke of The Smiths, who was in the audience, saying that when he wrote it he imagined it as a Smiths song Johnny Marr might have played.
And then just as a few fans were grumbling at the bar that they didn’t know a lot of the songs, Damon pulled out the stops and played “the hits.” We spoke to Damon after the show and said we’d been hoping for more of a sing-along set as well, and he said, “I didn't want to be corny, but that's the American way, isn't it? Maybe I should have done a bit more of that." With Justin Long.
