Micah P Hinson at The Cluny, Newcastle 2/11/10

Micah P Hinson At The Cluny, Newcastle 2/11/10

Micah P Hinson – Newcastle, The Cluny.

Before me stands Micah P Hinson, a pre-dentally apocalypsed Shane Macgowan impersonating Elvis Costello, munching on an apple dressed in jeans, plaid shirt, braces and a pair of Nike trainers somewhat at odds with the rest of his appearance. Hinson is armed with a battered guitar and a tiny notebook into which he appears to have scrawled his set list and which he places on the stage. Following a brief introduction he sets off through the list in his notebook. It’s a chaotic set to say the least. It takes him an interminably long time to scrutinise the writing in his notebook; there are re-tunings of the guitar between each song; he plays more than a handful of bum-notes and on more than one occasion halts a song part way through having lost his place and has to skim through to find his bearings again. But for all that, Hinson is a hugely engaging performer. His voice, seemingly crackling with static and lurching between the soaring tones of Neil Diamond and the sonorous growl of Kurt Wagner, is full of emotion and his body contorts constantly as he wrestles with his instrument, playing with at times violence, at times the merest of gentle touches. Between songs, Hinson meanders through a narrative of his life in small-town Texas, a story shot through with a cast of characters who could be lifted from the pages of an Annie Proulx novel. There are churches, deaths, prisons, suicides and switch-blade knives and these themes recur in his songs throughout his set. “This song is as depressing as shit,” he deadpans on one occasion. One day, they may well make a movie about Hinson. As long as he writes the script and the music, it will be an epic piece of cinema.

This fabulous review was given to us by Jon at suitcaseorchestra. A great web site. A great guy. Someone who knows who Annie Proulx is………..

LINKS:

MICAH P HINSON http://www.myspace.com/micahphinson