Last night I paid my first visit to The Luminaire, "London's most agreeable live music venue", which isn't too far from the truth, and saw what his support acts were referring to as Howeapalooza (well, we had Howe-fest, so why not?), the final stop on Howe Gelb's latest tour.

The Luminaire is on Kilburn High Road, and seems to be easy enough to get to by tube, though last night I drove.  Parking was simple enough - I found somewhere round the corner which was unrestricted after 6:30pm.  I do prefer to drive to gigs in London if I can - the inability to drink is more than outweighed by normally getting home a lot quicker and with a seat all the way..!

There were two opening acts, the first being Kate Maki, who played a great little set, accompanied at various times by Lonna Kelley (the second support act), and Thøger Lund from Howe's band.  I really enjoyed her set - enough so that I've just bought FLAC downloads of her first two albums from the Zunior website (only around a tenner for both, which is a hell of a lot better than iTunes manage!).  I've only heard the most recent so far, The Sun Will Find Us, which is an interesting listen.  At heart it's a folk album, I'd say, but with splashes of horns to add colour.  She's certainly someone to keep an eye on, and I'll definitely seek her out when she tours again over here.

I first saw Lonna Kelley when she played with Howe at the Barbican earlier this year, where V and I thought she was doing a startled-deer-in-the-headlights thing in front of a crowd that size.  After seeing her in the tiny Luminaire, I'm no longer so sure.  She seems to be quite diffident, or maybe shy, in front of the audience.  Anyway, she and her band played for the better part of an hour, joined for the last number by Howe, Thøger and Kate.  To be honest, I'm not really a fan.  I thought the set was just a bit... dull, really.  I'm not sure what it is that puts me off.  Her band were great, especially the guitarist, but it just never took off.  I don't think there's enough variation for me to keep interested, and her voice, good as it is, begins to wear me out after a while.  It's a quiet, breathy, thing that leave me wishing she'd just throw her head back and put some force into it all...

Then we had Howe.  Ramblin' Howe Gelb, as Kate called him.  I think we probably had about 25% anecdote to 75% music (surely Howe hasn't reached his anecdotage just yet?)  Anyway, the intimate set was heavy with material from his latest release, Upside Down Home 2007.  Thøger Lund provided the only accompaniment, on upright bass, until the very end of the set, when they were joined by the Kate and Lonna. 

Howe claims to not have enough time to write any songs any more, not that he seems to be slowing down his rate of record release, but instead draws on his bank of songs (which he described as a bank that has only one customer, so won't be running out any time soon)

I can't remember much of the setlist, but we certainly had The Hangin' Judge, Down On Town (originally from Valley of Rain, the first Giant Sand album, which Howe said they were remastering for a 25th anniversary reissue.  Well, he said they were removing some of the 80's production, anyway...), Seldom Matters, and Shiver ("our Coke commercial").  For the encore (not that he left the stage), we had Paradise Hereabouts and Get To Leave from the Sno Angel album, with backing vocals provided by Kate and Lonna (and, half-heartedly, from the audience).  While playing Get To Leave it seemed like Howe didn't want to do so, segueing into Ring of Fire, something else (the name of which escapes me, and which I can't believe I've forgotten), and ending up with a few choruses of Hey Jude.

Then the set was over, and I left for the drive back to Reading (which was fast enough to make up for the drive along the M40 getting there!)

I'm not doing much better at the whole posting regularly thing, am I?

Anyway, I thought I'd mention a couple of albums I'm listening to quite a lot at the moment, Justin Nozuka's Holly and Emilana Torrini's The Fisherman's Woman. They're both people I've seen as support acts (and don't we all just love discovering new music that way??): Justin Nozuka supporting John Cale when I saw him in the Fez Club in Reading, and Emiliana Torrini was one of the acts at this year's Howe Gelb & Friends event at the Barbican. 

Nozuka's album is a great singer-songwriter type of thing, though he's a lot more interesting than most I've heard lately (not thinking of Blunt in particular, of course!).

Emiliana Torrini has (as far as I can tell) two albums out.  The first, Love in the Time of Science is a more electronic album, where Fisherman's Woman is a largely acoustic affair.  You may have already heard one of her tracks at the end of the second Lord of the Rings film - she's the vaguely Bjork-y sounding one who did Gollum's Song.  Fisherman's Woman isn't very Bjork-like, but there are similarities in their voices, something about the slightly breathy sound and the phrasing.

I'm looking forward to next week: Howe Gelb (supported by Lonna Kelly, who was also at the Barbican gig) at The Luminaire in Kilburn.  Should be a great evening.  Can't decide whether to drive or take the train, though...