TY SEGALL, ROCK GOD, GRACES LONDON’S ROUNDHOUSE WITH AN EPIC SET

LIVE REVIEW | TY SEGALL – LONDON ROUNDHOUSE 28/06 by Morris Shamah

Ty Segall took the stage at Roundhouse in Camden at 9pm on Friday night and proceeded to show the near-capacity crowd why he’s the only living rock star. Sure, Glastonbury was going on, but for those 2 hours, Ty and his band scorched the earth in a blaze of riffs and rhythms unmatched by any touring rock artist today. 

Ty Segall isn’t reinventing the wheel here. It’s blues rock mayhem. There’s no fancy backdrop or intricate lighting rig. There’s barely any stage banter and no dressed up band. The riffs and solos speak for themselves. There’s no need to hide behind anything.

The setlist is 17 songs plus a 2 song encore, heavy on Ty’s latest album, Three Bells. But what is a song anyway? Here, they’re simply launch pads for Ty’s shredfest showcase. His guitar screams through the crowd, one minute piercing with the high notes of a solo peak, the next a veritable wave as chords come crashing down back into the composition. Between the songs, there is no silence – there is always a transitory guitar lick or organ jam to keep us afloat. Or drowning, as it were.

Roundhouse remains a fantastic venue – large enough to get lost in crowd anonymity, but small enough and designed well enough for the show to remain intimate enough for a true crowd-performer connection. And connect, they do. Almost immediately, mosh pits open, beer is thrown, crowds surf. How could you not, when the whole fabric of sound itself is assaulting you with rock and roll? London did not disappoint – the Friday night crowd was energetic and invested, and remarkably respectfully attentive to openers Earth Tongue, a kiwi duo on guitar and drums who’s throwback psychedelic stoner metal was much appreciated. Sludge riffs and fuzzy rhythms are exactly how to prepare for the onslaught to come.

For his set, Ty stands stage left, eschewing the expected frontman centre position. It’s a nice gesture towards his band, made up of guitar, bass, drums, and organ; allowing the audience to see them as a musical unit. They’re monstrous live, both composed enough to give Ty the space he needs and frantic enough to match him. But despite the stage setup, this is the Ty show – it’s his chops that shine through, and it’s his energy that dictates where these jams lead. Which is almost always to a huge guitar laden blues rock peak.

Ty closed the show with a sole moment of heartfelt warmth by opening the encore with “My Lady’s On Fire” from 2018’s Freedom’s Goblin. All rock shows need their moment of introspection, after all. But then it was right back to it with an absolutely mammoth rendition of “Melted” which culminated in a full-band jam that simply could not be denied. Glasto-who?

Setlists

Earth Tongue:

1. Micro God
2. Portable Shrine
3. Reaper Returns
4. Hollowing
5. Out Of This Hell
6. Bodies Dissolve
7. Nightmare
8. Pentagram On The Moon

Ty Segall:

1. The Bell
2. Void
3. I Hear
4. Hi Dee Dee
5. Breakfast Eggs
6. The Crawler
7. Whisper
8. My Head Explodes
9. Goodbye Bread
10. Imaginary Person
11. Girlfriend
12. Love Fuzz*
13. My Best Friend
14. My Room
15. Wait
16. Looking at You
17. Denée

Encore:

18. My Lady’s on Fire
19. Melted

*Slowed down doomy version

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