American Music Club

American Music Club need no introduction. Their career spanning over 20 years and 9 albums stands as a rock-solid guarantee. A long-awaited return, sealed by "The Golden Age", released after a four-year hiatus following “Love Songs For Patriots”, materializes here with a line-up that, for the first time in 17 years, doesn't include Danny Pearson and Tim Mooney, replaced by the excellent Dana Shechner on bass and Steve Didelot on drums, plus the addition of Jonathan Heine on second guitar. On this tour, the new-look American Music Club finally decide to include in the setlist those magnificent songs that touched so many hearts, masterpieces like “Engine”, ”Mercury” and “Everclear”.

It's the new recruit Steve Didelot himself who opens the show armed with just voice and electric guitar, offering up a handful of honest, catchy songs that nonetheless bear the heavy influence of a certain chart-friendly alternative-rock songwriting style. Worth noting is an amused cameo from Mark Eitzel behind the drums, accompanying a couple of songs by the blond Californian singer-songwriter-turned-drummer.

For Eitzel, unkempt beard and never more charismatic, a live show is a chance to bare himself completely: from the between-song banter, where he speaks bluntly and without hesitation about himself and the band's past, to the moments when his voice soars above the rest of the group, you realize you're witnessing a rare musical event.

American Music Club's timeless rock ballads take on new meaning tonight for the word soul: all those voices are right there, alive, ready to pour out of Eitzel's throat, warm and visceral yet also dark and desperate. A singular voice that builds an ideal bridge between Leonard Cohen and Nina Simone, between the finest rock songwriting and the most emotionally charged soul, backed in the endeavor by a band truly performing at its peak.

The 2008 incarnation of American Music Club veer decisively towards rock perhaps more than ever before: the two guitars, especially that of Vudi, the only other surviving member, don't hesitate to use noise as a liberating tool where needed, building an emotional climax through means that are never obvious or predictable, yet always via elegant, magnificently orchestrated arrangements. And it's the songs that mark this as an absolutely triumphant show: a tremendous “Graditude Walks”, languid and deep, an "Outside This Bar” that's epic and sun-soaked, and an excellent “All The Lost Souls”, from the American band's new album, just to name a few.

“It's just entertainment”, Eitzel tells me before the show, though I'd venture to say it's the kind of entertainment that can make your life better.

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