Crooked Fingers Borderline, London,

Crooked Fingers

Borderline, London,

Crooked Fingers has been ploughing its own particular furrow for sometime now. Ostensibly a one man band – Eric Bachmann – they are lumped in with the American folk movement and while there are elements of that, a cursory listen to their back catalogue reveals a variety that may not be immediately obvious. For this gig they are stripped right down to a twosome with electric and acoustic guitars. 

Opening with Typhoon from the new album, and reduced to just guitars an already brooding song takes on an even darker hue. Followed by Devils Train which is a lighter tune with Latin chimes. Bachmann’s band partner Liz Durrett on the electric guitar is the perfect foil with her subtle harmonies, which come to the fore in the ambling Bad Blood. A paltry eight song means they concentrate on the new record, though the versions performed are quite different to the ones on the album. In particular Your Apocalypse’s pendulum rhythm suits the two guitar format. 

The lullaby Sleep All summer is a true duet and is quite beautiful. There’s a valiant attempt to play The Counterfeiter without the amps but they don’t stand a chance against the incessant chatter that’s a feature of gigs these days. The set closes with the sombre but oddly uplifting Heavy Hours and that was it. A good sized crowd (waiting to see Horse Feathers) were more than polite with their applause so Crooked Fingers must have made some new friends this evening.