Jeffrey Lewis and Los Bolts, Mono, Falmouth

A sell out show in Falmouth for Jeffrey Lewis and Los Bolts playing on the back of their new album Manhattan.  Support came from Katja Rackin & the Marlboro Men.

Katja Rackin & the Marlboro Men

A review of Jeffrey Lewis and Los Bolts, Mono, Falmouth by Chris Sawle

FIRST it was Miss Peapod’s, then Beerwolf – now the baton has passed to Mono, as the Falmouth-Penryn area cements its reputation as the place to see the cream of cult bands in the duchy.
English major, comic book artist and Noo Yoik culture vulture, Jeffrey Lewis had sold out the port’s latest bijou venue.

And as if to prove his polymath status, he hadn’t just come to gig – earlier in the evening he had delivered a lecture on comic books and self-publishing at the university.

He had come to town on the back of his latest album, Manhattan. And many of his tunes took their inspiration from that great city: from an ode to neighbourliness (or not), Scowling Crackhead Ian – to an a cappella number, delivered from a crumpled scrap of paper, on the joys of modern media platforms, taking as its springboard Lou Reed’s Heroin; the pay-off line of “Inter …. net … be the death of me,” telegraphed in advance, eliciting a huge cheer.

But it wasn’t all New York. Single Thing I Most Love About England spoke of the delights of the countryside, a mix of “farmers, punks and druids”; A Complete History Of Communism Part 6 saw him on the floor operating a projector as he took us through a deeply left-leaning potted history of 20th-century Vietnam, in a breathless rap – accompanied by his own comic strip.
If anything, where he lost a little for me is the thrashier, lo-fi punk – dance your Docs off fun, sure (and there were plenty of DMs in evidence) – but his real genius lies in his askance, observational eye.
Sure, he won’t be troubling the charts anytime soon; but you should join him for a walk on the whimsical side.