The Folk Implosion (live at The Fleece)

Bristol
26 November 2024

With their creative stock having risen again off the back of last year’s Music For KIDS archival release on Domino and this year’s surprisingly strong new studio album Walk Thru Me on Joyful Noise, it’s perhaps no surprise that John Davis and Lou Barlow’s reunion as The Folk Implosion has continued so wholeheartedly for a quite lengthy UK tour.

Despite over two decades of separation, the pair arrived on stage displaying a warm camaraderie and an impressive dexterity that would suggest that they had never really been apart. Above all, the evening proved that The Folk Implosion are far more just a Barlow side-hustle away from Sebadoh, Dinosaur Jr and solo projects, and more than just the accidental minor-hit-generators of the still-infectious “Natural One” from 1995.

With Davis sharing dry-humoured raconteur responsibilities equally with Barlow, the pair’s connectivity extended from their sonic hybridising to amusing between-song anecdotes about direct and indirect historical encounters with Evan Dando, “Weird Al” Yankovic and Alex James from Blur.

Through both taking on vocal duties and occasional stints behind the drums, as well as respective roles on guitar / pre-programmed additions (Davis) and bass (Barlow), the pair self-assuredly reeled out a setlist that ran the range of their agile and ageing-well catalogue, with particular emphasis placed upon cuts from 1996’s apparent band-favourite Dare To Be Surprised and this year’s aforementioned Walk Thru Me.

This led to backwards glancing highlights in the shape of a snaky-guitar-led reading of “Insinuation”, a propulsive ramshackle ride through “Pole Position”, a laidback-grooves wander through “E.Z.L.A” and an atmospherically murky makeover of “My Ritual”. When it came to revisiting “Natural One”, the duo delivered a more laterally twisted take instead of a more stomping verbatim version, which may not necessarily have a been crowd-pleasing move, but it was at least consistent with the live display of amorphous agility, in bringing new angles to past works.

Through the Walk Thru Me material, the twosome leaned into their distinctive individual characters more markedly, whilst still cohesively conjoining their mutually supporting talents. Hence the Davis-driven renderings of “Day You Died” and “Bobblehead Doll” magnified the personalised psych-pop sensibilities, with his vocals recalling the late Grant Hart’s most reedy and wiry traits, whilst Barlow’s resurgent gifts for honeyed singing and bass-driven melodicism unfurled through the languid low-slung rumble of “Walk Thru Me” and a radical remoulding of “My Little Lamb”.

Throughout proceedings as a whole, it seems clear that John Davis and Lou Barlow are just only getting restarted and the alchemical artistry bubbling between them is intriguing and somewhat joyful to observe at close on-stage quarters. In short, The Folk Implosion’s unexpectedly compelling comeback has now been confirmed on all fronts.

-Adrian-