Admidst a few months of trekking around Europe, Eugene McGuinness made a stop in London at Madame Jojo's last night. Sporting a rather Norman Rockwell look, Eugene clanged through a set mostly consisting of songs from his self-titled debut long-player, as well as couple from an early EP and a not-especially-punk (but still quite fun) cover of the Ramone's 'Judy is a Punk.' The more acoustic sound of the record was ditched in favour of of straight electric sound with plenty of that warm fuzzy reverb to keep things poppy.
The loss of jangle doesn't hurt, though, with songs like 'Rings Around Rosa' and 'Moscow State Circus' maintaining their brightness. Meanwhile, slow number 'Those Old Black And White Movies Were True' was still all romance even without the strings and vocal tricks. The evening ended with an alternative version of Eugene's latest single, 'Fonz.' The 'alternative' came in when his guitarist didn't actually have enough strings left on his instrument to play, so the rendition was a bit stripped down. But stripped down or not, it didn't stop anyone shaking their hips.
Photo by Amanda Farah.
