Live Review

LIGHTSPEED CHAMPION – Cardiff Barfly

• 14th Feb 2008

I must admit I have been a little annoyed at the sudden flurry of attention directed towards Lightspeed Champion. Not least because I had been looking forward to this gig and now as a result of the plague of press attention surrounding the release of ‘Falling Off the Lavender Bridge’ – (cover of NME – you catch my drift) this little Cardiff gig had sold out and consequently my plus one had been cruelly withdrawn and loner gig status had been bestowed on me.

So after an ‘All You Can Eat’ Tapas dinner to placate my disappointed plus one (or was that ‘Eat All You Can’?). I waddled painfully towards the Barfly. For an uncompetitive person I take binge eating a little too seriously.

Due to excessive greed I had unfortunately already missed the support (the Tournaments and the Semifinalists) but I was right on time to catch the full Championship action.

They weren’t lying when they said it was sold out. The gig had attracted Cardiff trendies of all shapes and sizes out on a Thursday night, but with a venue being so intimate (small) I suppose it is hard not to fill.

Dev Hynes himself cuts an impressive figure in his token furry hat and drainpipe jeans, accompanying himself on guitar and keyboards. He was backed up by a full band mostly borrowed from support band the Semifinalists.

Unusually kicking off the set with a song he introduced as ‘one from the next album’ (his debut solo album only came out 2 weeks ago!) he had the audiences’ undivided attention.

Returning to the safer territory for the second song, ‘Everyone I know is Listening to Crunk’ off the debut album ‘Falling Off the Lavender Bridge,’ had the crowd entranced with it’s country lilt.

Some of the sumptuous orchestration from the album was recreated by the hard work of the excellent violinist borrowed from the support band. Dev’s sweet voice belied a Patrick Wolf darkness in his tone which suits the anguish of some of his lyrics.

He seemed genuinely humbled that dedicated audience members knew all the words to latest single ‘Tell me What It’s Worth.’ (on the other hand I was less then happy – as I hadn’t come to hear their out-of-tune karaoke session).

Ending triumphantly with the rarely performed “Stay the F**k Away From Me.” Lightspeed demonstrated some of the wit and the lyrical honesty that make his musical performances so believable and interesting.

Despite my bloated fullness and lonesome stance I was pleased to have witnessed the show before things really take off for him. I just hope that with all this publicity he will not be hyped and discarded like so many other NME flavour of the month bands (anyone remember Menswear?). He is made of stronger stuff and his power of reinvention from Test Icicle to Country Maverick puts him in good stead to weather the fickle music industry attention and keep his eye on the championship prize.