Chris Tavener - Live In London!
Chris Tavener Live @ The Slaughtered Lamb, London
Friday 20th October 2017
By Tom Price, Galaxies Collide
I’ve seen Chris Tavener on a several occasions now, in a number of cities and venues around the UK, however this has to be his best set to date. Solid new additions to his set such as The Phone Song and Millennials make his 45 minutes on stage all killer, no filler. Sat in the comfortable but quirky surroundings of the basement venue in Faringdon’s Slaughtered Lamb pub, the set seems to fly by, leaving the full audience who listened intently, pleading for more.
Chris’ unique blend of dark comedy and catchy tunes, mixed with lots of subtle but vitally important physical gestures certainly makes his act stand out from the crowd. Too often, ‘solo singer-songwriters with a guitar’ acts are rudely spoken over in a noisy bar on a Friday night, but not with Chris. The room full of paying London punters are entranced during each song and hang on his every word during the gaps, captured by his self-indulgent yet awkward persona. It’s refreshing to see someone commanding the audience’s attention through the lyrical content rather than shouting at them between songs to “shut up and listen!”. Or maybe it was the neon Pentagram on the wall behind him that kept everyone under his spell… Either way, Chris seems to have really rounded off his stage show through 2 hometown live album recordings he did in Manchester at the end of September, which is due for release early in 2018. His comical timing is phenomenal and his ability to say very little but express a lot is a skill that has obviously been refined over many years. Expect to leave Chris’ shows with a well exercised diaphragm and to be humming his tunes for weeks to come.
The only way is up for Chris Tavener as he continues his tour with Thom Morecroft throughout the end of October and November 2017. As Chris is known as one of the hardest working unsigned artists in the UK, make sure to keep up with his live dates at www.christavener.co.uk/events
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ChrisTavener
