A steamy Friday night in London and the return of Gary Louris and Mark Olson  as the Jayhawks along with Karen Grotberg, Tim O’Reagen and Marc Perlman. 

Marc Olson and Ingunn Ringvold filled the support slot, the latter mainly on a large bongo drum and vocals and Marc alternating between an acoustic guitar and something resembling  a sitar lap steel guitar. 

I can’t say I recognised any of the songs but the harmonies where great and in a smaller venue it could have been quite a intimate affair.

The Jayhawks were on stage at 8.45pm and pretty much straight into Wichita followed

by a ninety minute set filled with, classics from ‘Tomorrow the Green Grass’ and ‘Hollywood Town Hall’ ( except Crowded in the Wings).

The harmonies remain unblemished and for a band that were at the forefront of the modern day Americana movement the set and performance did not disappoint. This was however their fifth show in five nights on the UK tour and perhaps ‘workmanlike’ is a good description.

It was the classics that were greeted like long lost friends, 'Blue', 'Nevada California', 'Over my Shoulder', 'Two Angels',. O’Reagan took the lead with his composition 'Tampa to Tulsa' during the encore as well.

The most ‘Jayhawk friendly (harmony wise) new songs like 'She Walks In So Many Ways' were interspersed amongst the set. There was some head nodding and hand clapping in the first couple of rows otherwise people seem to be soaking up the long lost tunes along with the heat for the duration of the evening.

One comment that came from the punters outside the venue was, the band going off at 10.15. Probably the venue wanting to get some extra cash in from a club night?, but it’s a bit disappointing on a Friday.

Pete