Gig Review: Ezra Furman At The Roundhouse
Ezra Furman takes the pulpit in the church of punk and preaches in the name of rock ‘n’ roll.
Last night Ezra Furman and her band treated London’s Roundhouse to a cathartic barnstorming tour through her more recent back catalogue. Kicking off proceedings with the clattering spiritual ‘Train Comes Through’ from her last album, All Of Us Flames, she set the tone for the evening. Prowling the stage —a perfect lightning rod to dispense any lingering anxieties you might have had before the night started. She took up the proverbial pulpit in front of her four-piece band and a bunch of lilac lilacs dressed in a black dress and a pair of Docs, effortlessly switching between an acoustic guitar and two electrics depending on what the song needed.
The Chicago-born musician leaned heavily on her more recent albums launching into ‘Evening prayer aka Justice’ and ‘Trauma’ from 2019 Twelve Nudes immediately after the opening track. The raw-punkiness of those songs providing the perfect foil to the recent wide-lensed road trip into America’s dark heart on All Of Us Flames. The heart of the recent album was put on full display when she introduced ‘Dressed In Black’ by saying, ‘I’ve always seen girl groups like the Shangri -Las as girl gangs. This one’s for Ronnie Spector.” More highlights from Twelve Nudes abounded with scintillating renditions of ‘I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend’ and ‘Transition From Nowhere To’. Introducing the latter, Ezra stepped up to the mic and wondered out loud, “Like you’re not all afraid of failure and death like me? Ambition leads nowhere.”
Ezra has never hidden her desire to provide sanctuary and musical transcendence, the raw intensity of the evening bringing her to tears a couple of times even though the audience seemed a few steps behind at times; maybe they wanted a more familiar setlist or had forgotten the sheer force that she was with her band and were in awe. But this all went out the window as she announced, “this one from 2015”, and launched into ‘Haunted Head’ from 2015’s Perpetual Motion People.
From here, she eased back to more recent fair, declaring, “this one’s for Trans people our colors are lilac and black!” — treating us to a soulful rendition of ‘Lilac and Black.’ Next came ‘Forever in Sunset,’ clearly the hit of the most recent album. Once she roared into the Springsteen-esque anthem, anyone who wasn’t aboard the Ezra Furman freight train was now. From here on out, there was no doubt that Ezra had won our hearts and minds. We were treated to the deep cut ‘My Zero’ from 2013’s Day Of The Dog, a raucous and raw ‘I Love You So Bad’ (the sing-along moment of the night, perhaps) and a stomping ‘Suck The Blood From My Wound’ from 2018’s Transangelic Exodus, before the thrashing punk climax of ‘What Can You Do But Rock ‘n’ Roll’ from Twelve Nudes and Ezra diving into the crowd to join her congregation — we were on the same page now, and that page was from the book of Ezra.
The encore didn’t disappoint, with Ezra and the band returning to give us more of what we needed with her classic, ‘Can I Sleep In Your Brain’ from Perpetual Motion People and the Ramones like ‘Calm Down aka I Should Not Be Alone’ from Twelve Nudes. This was all brought to a fist-pumping climax as Ezra intoned to us, “I offer you a protection spell from Saint Patti Smith and Bruce Springsteen…” before sending us into the night with a spirited version of Smith and the Bosses ‘Because The Night’ —indeed, what else can you do but rock ‘n’ roll?