If art were basketball, Jeffrey Lewis is your all-around role player that has no one obvious forte but can do it all very well. He might be the first to tell you that his singing voice and guitar playing are less than dazzling by most modern indie rock standards, but neither of those things is vital to being a natural storyteller.
That's what Lewis is, and he likes to prove it in ways beyond cute, goofy folk songs on acoustic guitar that make him sound like a wordier Daniel Johnston - although those certainly still might be his greatest strength. Aside from those, Lewis' set at The Bishop Tuesday night also featured his fantastical (and truly awesome) comic book illustrations, short stories, a capella rap, harder rock with accompaniment from his band The Junkyard that includes his brother Jack on bass and Nan Turner of Schwervon! on keyboard, and some hybrids of all of the above.
Lewis seems to aim for equal parts concert, fiction reading, and comic book exhibition with his performance. But above all, with an especially young crowd of about 50 (a few of whom probably came based on Lewis' "hands down my favorite contemporary songwriter" endorsement from Ben Gibbard), it felt more like a large gathering in a suburban attic. No heavy analysis is necessary to explain why, really, only a recap of everything that made it such, which is as follows.
After Emperor X plays a full set with everybody in the room sitting down, Lewis and co. (having not had the chance to sound check) set up their equipment amid a cluster of technical difficulties. Ultimately, they choose to give up on solving a couple sound issues once everyone decides that as long as everything is audible and Lewis' projector and screen are working, it's fine. Luckily, an absolutely perfect live sound is less than essential for Lewis' performance style.
Lewis opens the set with "Seattle," a mellow solo bit on his acoustic-electric, and "I Got Lost," another soft one for his band. The louder, more vigorous material comes a couple songs later with "Time Machine." 15-20 minutes in, Lewis puts on a comics slide shows called "Sitting Bull" on the projector. He and The Junkyard provide musical narration about the plight of the Sioux chief.
Lewis then delivers fifteen minutes of Junkyard-less solo material. He puts on another slide show entitled "A Low Budget Detective Flick" to accompany a short story of his, followed by a rap about being a "mosquito mass murderer" ("It's kill or be killed or be bitten and itchin'/But for real, no mosquito gets a meal in my kitchen") over his own snap-snap-clap beat (with a rare request that the audience NOT clap along - yep, "anti-folk" describes his game perfectly) and the sentimental (no, really) "Don't be Upset" on keyboard. His band naps behind him.
With two songs left, Lewis announces that his band, like Emperor X, is technically, temporarily, unofficially, sort of homeless for the night, and offers free comics for a place for his band to crash. Numerous underage hands shoot up. Lewis immediately amends this by adding a condition that there can be no partying since The Junkyard needs rest. They appropriately jump into "No LSD Tonight," a song about how fans often mistakenly believe Lewis accepts offers of the hallucinogen because of his song and album called "The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane."
Lewis ends the set with another film dedicated to the Occupy movement ("Wait, you guys are saying they have one of those here too?"). Everyone goes home, and the performers presumably find a roof as well - quite possibly an attic.
Post and photography by Steven Arroyo
