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| Lincoln - London, St. Mary's Small Church Saturday 20th January 2001 |
I always like to see bands play in churches; gigs at the Union Chapel for instance are always pretty special, the kinds of bands that play churches usually play quiet or atmospheric music, often not led around by drums and crashing guitars. Admittedly at tonight's concert ('gig' seems a bit of a clunky word for it) we had both of those elements, but mostly the quieter, more thoughtful and introspective Lincoln sound resonated above our heads, and in a most satisfying way I hasten to add. Lincoln are a little bit different to my ears from a lot of the 'alt' protagonists around, there's actually very little in the way of a country sound here it's more a kind of music that we thought we might have forgotten, but people who maybe cherish the likes of Talk Talk (the later stuff), The Blue Nile and Martin Stephenson would dig this massively, maybe Lincoln themselves would be irritated by such potentially uncool references, they might prefer Lambchop, well I reckon they're a lot smarter than that.
There seems to be a lot more emphasis on vocals now they have Tracey singing for them, and she has a beautiful, laid-back Peggy Lee of a voice that really suits the songs, just the right shade of world weariness and unrequited happiness/love. The fantastic Mariarchi elements are still there but it seems Lincoln have made more room for the vocals. It might be just the set they played but I miss some of that lop-sided brass that gives Lincoln that special swagger, a joyful, hip-shakin' earthiness that lends to songs like 'Snakeheads', which they played last tonight, to rapturous applause, I'd like more of that drunken brass please!
But that's a minor gripe, Lincoln are following their own path, they don't seem to give a shit about convention, fashion and what the latest, coolest sound is, they seem to just want to play moving music, tell some stories and have a good time, praise be!
Santa Dog
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