Gruff Rhys with John Evans
The Super Furry Animals’ latest solo effort is an musical tale regarding Gruff Rhys’ apparent ancestor John Evans and his journey to America to discover a mythical tribe of Native Americans who were descendants of a Welsh Prince called Madoc.
The story of John Evans’ trek to America is told via numerous ways including: A documentary with fusty historians that is shown to the audience prior to the band take to the stage; between song narration from Gruff with accompanying photographs showing the puppet John Evans in various locations along his journey; and of course, through the music of the American Interior album.
As on his last tour, Gruff Rhys is backed by the Welsh surf instrumental band Y Niwl who add sprightly colour and perform with the kind of playfulness that Gruff’s songs require. The bulk of the set is made up of tracks taken from American Interior with a couple of older songs thrown in to pad out the narrative including Shark Ridden Waters from Hotel Shampoo. The set is warmly received by the audience who buy in to the tale from the start. Although it’s the puppet of Puppet of John Evans who is arguably the star of the show eliciting the biggest cheer of the night when he is finally unveiled perched atop a cactus.
When the American Interior portion of the show is over, the band return to the stage for a quick fire run through some of Gruff’s older solo material including Candylion and Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru. It’s a long show, clocking it at almost two hours in total, but due to Gruff’s engaging presence the time doesn’t feel like it’s dragging at all (the only thing I notice is my lower back starts to ache due to standing in once place for so long). Gruff Rhys has always been a clever songwriter and this mixed with his good natured humour and witty storytelling means the gig breezes by.
Gruff Rhys played at the Rescue Rooms on Monday 16 February 2015.
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