You are now entering 'best-kept-secret-in-rock 'n' roll' territory..Mark Eitzel is the singer and songwriter with the
appallingly named American Music Club,a San Franciscan outfit who have,over the course of four largely ignored
albums,expunged the genre-led fixations of rock's nominal 'leaders' for something altogether more enigmatic.
If all this should have so far gone commercially unsung,then it's in no way down to the crowd gathered here tonight.
'Faithful' sounds too much like 'flock' and all it's sheep like connotations,but truly,the Borderline won't see a more
attentive audience unless it starts doing bingo.
Which is just as well since Eitzel,apparently holidaying in the UK and up for the crack,is performing a solo acoustic
set that on occasions even dumps the guitar as an unwelcome intrusion.But it's the voice that matters,anyway.
Soul-baring to the streaker's degree that Eitzel indulges in has,in rock 'n' roll circles,usually gone hand-in-hand with
a voice like a pig (honourable exceptions noted).But his voice summons up the lantern-jawed hurt of Tim Buckley at
times: a tough comparison for him,sure,but who else could sing so convincingly of forehead-on-the-bar stasis without
recourse to the usual stumblebum stained undershorts and combustible breath ennui.
Given the grounded fumblings that usually pass for these solo acoustic evenings - singers adrift without the balls-out
backbeat - Eitzel's set was all the more remarkable for rendering the notion of him leading one of rocks more affecting
line-ups temporarily redundant.
Reviewed by Bobby Surf for NME 26th January 1991