Lou Reed 9/8/2012

I was definitely up for this gig after listening to a lot of Velvet Underground in the early 70s. The nice surprise was how much I liked his recent recordings which resounded with that rasping relentless rhythm that characterised Velvet Underground songs. I should have stuck with Lou Reed so I have some catching up to do. There was no support but I really enjoyed the disonant feedbacky swirl of sound that substituted for a support act. Lou Reed kicked off with 'Brandenburg Gate' from 'Lulu' and I was immediately into the dense sound of Lou and the band. The band included (for the third time in four gigs) a perfectly aligned sax player. This one blasted away as if he had been part of the Velvets, raucous and rhythmic. The whole band was on board as well and the resulting sound was for me pretty exciting. Next up was a couple of Velvets songs, 'Heroin' and 'Waiting' for my man'. It was all a bit intense and deep for the audience who seem to come to the Assembly for a chat with their friends. Most of the rest of the fairly short set (about 90 mins including the encore) was composed of songs from Lulu mixed in with some solo tracks such as 'Walk on the Wild Side'. I particularly liked the last track before the encore, 'Junior Dad' from Lulu which started quietly and built up into a wall of noise from Lou and Aram Bajakian on guitar and Sarth Calhoun on sax. The encore was the best Velvet's song of the night, played with feeling - 'I'm beginning to see the Light'. It's a great track to go off into the night. I'm still humming it nearly a week later.