Greg Freeman at the Lexington

Greg Freeman

Sean Trelford

The Lexington, 2 September 2025

Back to The Lexington again for second time in just under two weeks, so I'm starting to feel like a regular! I hadn't planned on going to this show as I already had a ticket to Greg Freeman's Rough Trade in-store but a ticket came up for the sold out gig and it seemed meant to be.

Unlike last time, there was only one support act tonight but again he looked like an absolute baby and in fact the first thing Sean Trelford said to us when he leapt up on to the small stage was that he had just turned 19 the day before (something that he then kept reminding us of throughout his performance, much to the amusement of the crowd and even himself). 

A lad from Cambridge, looking like a typical teenager who has just woken up with disheveled hair and a t-shirt thrown on, he began playing a song by himself, with just his electric guitar, and it sounded like fairly generic indie music. But then his band joined him on stage and the sound went surprisingly jazzy. To me it sounded like he was influenced by Jeff Buckley's more jazz-influenced leanings, but he also enjoyed turning on his distortion pedal at the end of songs and adding some fuzzed up guitar.

He was definitely full of confidence, even taking off his shoes after the first song (in my mind he was then Shoeless Sean) and liked talking to the crowd. At one point while tuning his guitar for a really long time, he asked us if we had seen that meme of Radiohead tuning and the crowd thinking it was a song and clapping, to which everyone started to clap at his tuning skills, which was a nice, funny moment.  

A lot of the songs he kept telling us were written when he was 15 or when he was 16, which really drummed home just how young he was, I did feel a bit like I was a parent at the school evening performance but his band were good and Trelford was a pretty good guitarist too. He ended with a song he said was going to be his first single, and it seemed to twist and turn into interesting places, ending with him screaming over a discordant guitar. So many support acts you never hear of again, but maybe Trelford will be one of few playing headline shows soon, he definitely has talent.

But we were all here tonight to see Greg Freeman, whose new album Burnover (his second overall), has been thrilling me lately, and is definitely one of the year's best. His first record, I Looked Out, had a real Jason Molina sound, which obviously is a very good thing, but I think he's really come into his own with this new album, an arresting mix of sounds and influences. I saw some clips of him jamming away Crazy Horse-style live, but with the added addition of some crazy saxophone (which is also prominent on the record) and knew I had to see him live.

Only 27 years old, the Vermont native, somehow seems older than he is (maybe it's the Molina and Warren Zevon influences) and when he arrives on stage, he's also smaller than I expected and somehow more delicate looking too, with fine features and fair hair. When he speaks too, he's quite soft spoken and almost shy, although he does speak a little and seems very sweet. Of course that all changes when he picks up his Fender Telecaster, and bashes away on it Springsteen-like.

His band was a simple one, with drums (Kim), bass (Patrick) and, more unusually, a saxophonist, a cool-looking brunette called Poppy wearing a long white skirt (many songs were also accompanied by roadie Gus on tambourine!). He began the set with new track Rome, New York, starting off low key and eventually descending into a beautiful chaotic mix of discordant guitar and squealing saxophone.

Gone (Can Mean A Lot Of Things) had an almost Tom Petty-esque feel and it was cool to see how Freeman handled his guitar and sang, eyes closed and teeth exposed, as he almost snarled the lyrics. 

He went back then to older material from his first album for the next few songs, which was more than fine with me as I had never seen him tour that record. There was the slowly menacing Long Distance Driver featuring some quite atmospheric saxophone, Come And Change My Body with Freeman playing a mean harmonica and Tower, which had the band going properly punk rock, with its driving riff, even more dynamic and exciting in fact than the recorded version (which is great too!).

Freeman told us that Gus, the tambourine playing roadie who kept joining them onstage, got fined £150 for smoking on the pavement outside the venue (I had no clue that was a fineable offense) and jokingly urged us to give Gus some money at the merch table after the show so he could pay it. Poor Gus didn't look too upset though as he was grinning throughout. Freeman said "I've never loved America more... well I guess you have cleaner streets though!" he joked.

He then returned to the new record with the brilliant track Point And Shoot, already sounding like a classic, with its arresting opening line "shot down in the shade of cardboard canyons," and its crashing drums and harmonica flourishes, there's actually something reminiscent about Warren Zevon about the feel of it all, which is never a bad thing.

Then it was on to the rowdy and wordy Gulch, which ending with some roaring guitar solos and lots of crazy sax. I think it was around this point that Freeman told us to buy the signed lyric book he had on sale tonight (which I did go on to do), telling us that the lyrics on the internet were "all wrong" and proudly proclaiming (quite rightly) that his lyrics were "pretty good". 

To be fair, he is not wrong at all, although tonight was more about the energy of the music, he's definitely more than a pretty good lyricist. That is certainly demonstrated on the next song, Curtain with lines like "Your eyes are like a curtain and the sun goes through it, and a crystalline expression questions some kind of fall from grace, reflecting green shadows through black shutter curls." Freeman almost snarls the lyrics as it builds to the brilliant bridge of "if your heart's not in it, then your hearts not in it, then my hearts not in it," the change in tone, always sending a chill. I was looking forward to hearing this part live and it didn't disappoint. The whole song then descends into a fantastic crazy whirl of discordant guitar and noisy sax. It's so much fun to hear live.

He then dives into the jerky yet soaring Salesman, one of the first singles from the new album. It still sounds so fresh and full of energy, especially when the whole band jam together on the instrumental outro.

The next song we're told is a new one "that isn't on the record," which I don't know if that means it was written around the same time and didn't make it on or is completely newly written. Whichever it is, it sounds great and has a beautifully plaintive chorus that goes something like "you don't have to try so hard to be alone". It was down on the setlist as Amber, but I don't know if that's its actual name.

Freeman then tells us it's the final song, and the band return to his first record, for the very Molina-inspired Colorado, with its cool Pavement-esque riff. With the soaring sax and Freeman really going crazy on his guitar, the whole thing gets close to the rawness and thrilling noise of Neil Young and Crazy Horse at their best, which is such high praise from a Neil fanatic like myself.

At this the band walked off stage and I was pretty sure it was the end. Freeman doesn't seem the type to do fake encores, but people were cheering and clapping so much and not moving, that the band came back on for what felt like an unplanned and genuine encore. Freeman seemed surprised and said they would do the song they were supposed to open the set with but decided not to (indeed I grabbed a copy of the setlist at the end and it's there at the start, but they skipped it and instead started with Rome, New York). 

What an absolute thrill to hear the opening riff to one of the best tracks on I Looked Out, Right Before The Last Waves Took Vestris. It of course was a glorious end to the night and the perfect way to see us off. When encores are truly authentically called for, they are always that little bit more special, I must say.

But my Greg Freeman adventure doesn't end here. I'm off to see him again at Rough Trade East, which hopefully will be just as thrilling!