Sean Lennon
7 out of 10 - Enjoyable.
Sunday, April 01, 2007
The Fillmore at Irving Plaza NYC
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Photos by Leslie Torre
With a sold-out crowd looking on, Sean Lennon took the stage looking dapper in a suit jacket, tie and a handful of red wine. Touring on his new album “Friendly Fire,” his set consisted mostly of those songs. Having never seen him live and not knowing what to expect, what we got was a man comfortable in his shoes and talkative to his audience who yelled out to him everything from “Come over here and take a picture” to “I came all the way from Mexico.” Taking a festive audience in stride, he came across as being very witty and jammed out on several songs including a cover of Marc Bolan’s “Would I be the One,” which is on the album. Mentioning the recent Irving Plaza name change to “The Fillmore at Irving Plaza,” this is the 11th or 12th time he’s played this venue. From what the doorman said, Irving Plaza became The Fillmore last Wednesday. Is it me or are all the music clubs closing or changing lately in Manhattan? First the closings of CBGB’s, Sin-e, then Tonic and now this? I’m not going to go on a rant here, but this really stinks!
With a full beard and long hair, it was hard to get the image of his father out of my head as he looked just like him, even in the way he holds and plays his guitar, but Sean’s music is different. He obviously hasn’t written songs that would become hallmarks for generations yet, but his music is good and so is his songwriting. As for his live show, he and his band including Yuka Honda formerly of Cibo Matto are all great players and it’s nice to see them take the songs on extended jams. Despite some guitar glitches Sean had, everyone seemed to go home happy as he joked with the audience throughout the night, playing a relaxed set of songs off his new album.
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