acoustic performance, the talk was of just how our hero was likely to be feeling. ``He gets so keyed up that often he can't wait for showtime and goes on early,'' one concerned devotee confided. ``I'm actually feeling nervous myself, just knowing how nervous he's going to be,'' announced another.
Something less than showtime in Vegas lay in store then this is a man who manages to make a virtue of his ineptitude in tuning a guitar. But this very lack of glib professionalism is a key to what makes him such an affecting
performer. Edgy and out there, he is uneasy listening at its best. Watching him, your heart lurches frequently towards your mouth.
AMC will be playing the Reading Festival and a smattering of other British dates later this month, before returning in October for a tour in support of the forthcoming album San Francisco. This, then, was Eitzel's chance to perform
both familiar and new material in a stripped-down format, one ideally suited to the exposition of his idiosyncratic and frequently remarkable lyrics. He writes in something loosely resembling the rock idiom, yet uses an almost totally
original portfolio of ideas. And there is a special talent for relationship songs often based on that moment of ephiphany in which some essential truth is revealed.
A new song, ``What Holds The World Together'', was the perfect case in point, with its references to the performance of actress Gena Rowlands in the film Love Streams. Appearing opposite her husband, John Cassavetes, who was dying of cancer, he recalled her lighting up the screen with her palpable love for him.Eitzel's tribute, delivered in that big and strangely beautiful voice, was equally incandescent.
There was no shortage of other highlights "Western Sky'',"Last Harbour'',"Apology for an Accident'' and an appearance by AMC guitarist Vudi among them. And I imagine Times columnist Caitlin Moran will not be ashamed for it to be known that she was crying as she left the building.
Review by Alan Jackson for The Times 10th August 1994
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