Grant Lee Buffalo at the Royal Festival Hall

Grant Lee Buffalo

Heidi Spencer And The Rare Birds

Royal Festival Hall, 18 May 2011

Hello, Royal Festival Hall old friend. Seems like I've been spending more time at the RFH recently but I have to admit it's one of my favourite venues, location-, sound- and seat-wise. It's also one of the best places to see acoustic acts and although Grant Lee Buffalo aren't strictly acoustic, this is still the perfect venue to see them again.

And I have seen Grant Lee Buffalo before, back in the 90s sometime, I think it was after their second album Mighty Joe Moon came out, whenever that was, and it was at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. I remember the band Scarce supported them but I don't remember much about their set itself. Which is why when I saw they had reformed I thought it would be nice to see them again and it really was a night filled with nostalgia mainly based around their first two albums funnily enough. (Their final album, which is one of my favourites, was ignored entirely probably due to the fact that bassist Paul Kimble had left by then).

Before they came on stage and started reminiscing about the 90s, there was a support act called Heidi Spencer And The Rare Birds, essentially singer-songwriter Spencer backed with a keyboard player and a drummer. Spencer's music was an enticing country-tinged folk and her voice reminded me of that girlish husky tone that Kasey Chambers does but she has to be the most nonsensical, rambling talker inbetween songs I've ever heard. She blamed it on jetlag and only having three hours sleep but why she or her band let her ramble on about things with no point, humour or coherency to them I'll never know. Whatever it was she should have saved the little energy she had for the songs because her rambling lessened her impact quite a bit, which is a shame.

Grant Lee Buffalo are the first band I've ever seen arrive late on the RFH stage, only about five to ten minutes, but still I was surprised as it's always strictly punctual there. Punk rock! When they did walk on stage it was like being taken back in a time warp because they looked exactly as I remember them (even Phillips, who I've seen play live as a solo act, looked younger). I'm sure close-up they look like guys in their late 40s, which is what they are, but beneath the blue lights with their suitably shaggy hair they looked like they were continuing on from where they left off.

Smiling they launched into The Shining Hour, a great, glorious way to start. I don't know why I had never realised it before (or perhaps I had back in the day but over the years had forgotten) but Phillips plays everything on a 12 string acoustic, even the electric guitar solos, it's pretty incredible to watch. I don't know how he does it but it sounds amazing and uniquely him. Following with Wish You Well and Jupiter And Teardrop it was clear this was to be a crowd-pleasing set where all but two of the songs came from their most popular albums, Fuzzy and Mighty Joe Moon. My favourite part came in the middle when they played a trio of songs in succession from their second album , which are possibly my favourite Grant Lee Buffalo songs of all time: Mockingbirds, Happiness and Honey Don't Think. I realise Phillips has been playing some of these songs in his solo shows but it was a surprise to hear just how assured they sounded all these years on. Of course they were due to play this show back in January but Phillips injured his leg, so maybe had more rehearsal time, and tonight he apologised for the long wait, but it was definitely all worth waiting for, the band sound even better than I remember.

Addressing the sense of nostalgia Phillips mentioned surviving the 90s several times. It's funny to think of the 90s as an old, difficult decade that people survived but there you go, I guess for many it is (Kurt Cobain certainly didn't make it). There's no doubt anyway that Phillips is a better talker than Heidi Spencer, even interacting with the crowd and playing a couple of requests (although when too many people began shouting them, he resorted to ignoring us again). Not surprisingly the main set ended with the anthemic America Snoring and a rousing Fuzzy (as posted above) with the song building into a Neil Young-style guitar fest. Beautiful.

Grant Lee Buffalo may never have been a huge band and their reunion certainly didn't cause the fuss of other 90s bands who recently reformed but there was genuine love and affection for this band tonight that had nothing to do with hipness, certainly a little nostalgia sure, but it was mostly pure love for the music and the joy of finally hearing it live again. There's no doubt that these songs still sound great all these years on and the band can play them as passionately as ever. Fingers crossed for a new Grant Lee Phillips album.