Sunday 11/05/08 Jesse Malin @ The Barfly, Liverpool

It's been some time since punk veteran Jesse Malin graced our shores and walked the boards of our stages, the die hard fans eagerly awaiting the moment the “Springsteen” for the younger generation skulked out and greeted us. The apparent lack of a drum kit and amplifiers was cause for much chattering amongst the crowd as The Barfly stage, scarce and cold had a sense of almost foreboding with its minimal arrangements – a keyboard, two acoustic guitars and a box for percussion. “Can he pull it off?” one punter asked, “Is this going to translate well?” said another… damn right it did.

Malin walked out with a quick wave and straight into a barrage of beautifully stripped down arrangements, with all the gusto of a punk god, the lack of a full band unnoticeable as he drew us all in with his heartfelt acoustic performances of classic tunes. With crowd favourites such as ‘Tomorrow Tonight’ and ‘Downliner’ flying in early, it was clearly not going to be a night of obscure Malin tunes. The punters hanging on every word the New Yorker had to say, he held the crowd in the palm of his hand telling us stories and anecdotes about life on the road and his influences behind the songs that have graced his three original albums. Accompanied by none other than multi-instrumentalist Christine Smith on Keyboards and backing vocals, songs such as ‘Since You’re In Love’ and ‘Brooklyn’ never held so much dark poignance as they did this evening in their new acoustically driven state.

As tonight’s gig was in aid of promoting his new covers record, the songs chosen for ‘On Your Sleeve’ took on new clear meaning with the audience tonight due to Malins explanations and memoirs as to why and how he’d chosen these songs that had graced his childhood and now his fourth studio album. ‘Russian Roulette’ as made famous by The Hold Steady garnered a beauty and playfulness that could not have translated any better than tonight as its sheer brilliance was a joy to witness performed. As was the case with Malins version of Lou Reed's ‘Walk On The Wild Side’ that saw the crowd help out on the “do do doo” bits and fall in love with the classic tune for all new reasons.

His open and appreciative attitude towards the crowd was a highlight of the evening, as Malin took every chance to chat with the audience and share stories of his growing up around music and his views on music today, sharing with us the secrets of such songs as ‘Wendy’, ‘Broken Radio’ and ‘Aftermath’. Ending the night with ‘Bastards Of Young’ Malin joined the crowd and united the punters with a sing-a-long, inviting anyone to come and chat at the merch stand before finishing on an acapella chorus line, showing us that he wasn’t just another rock star tonight.

Yet again Jesse Malin had brought the house down to raucous sing alongs and applause, always the entertainer and always playing as if it were his last gig ever.