It is, more than decent of Beans On Toast to bookend the set with all you need to write the review.
The first one he plays this evening – actually that should say they play this evening given that this is the Beans On Toast Band is “Back Out On The Road” a homage to just that. The joy, the camaraderie, the characters and the fun, it is all here in that one song. But more than that, it is all there in every Beans On Toast show.
Fast forward, 90 minutes or so, and the five of them play “On And On”, a simple thought that whatever the death and destruction in the world however bad things get, we all just have to carry on or is BOT put it in the chorus: “I’m just gonna keep on singing”.
Jay McAllister – Beans on Toast to you and me – has been playing these type of shows for years, his concerts are always a celebration of “us” against “them” but almost knowing in a way that it doesn’t matter what “they” do, because we’ve always got each other.
It also helps that BOT releases a record every year. So his tours are always fresh and exciting. Last year’s “The Toothpaste And The Tube” was particularly special, he clearly agrees given that most of it is played.
The addition of a proper band, makes for some interesting changes, there is a real honky tonk feel to “Work To Do” thanks to Kink Killership’s piano. There had been when he’d played his support set too, where we find that he didn’t know what he called “Stick Boats” in he’s song were actually pooh sticks, but rather more importantly it is also clear but he’s taken the Blues in his own way.
It is a feature of the show that all of the members of the band had appeared in their own sets beforehand. Memphis Gerald, had impressed with his folky stuff. He’s quite quirky though, as his cover of The Offspring’s “The Kids Are Alright” rather proved. His own work like “Red Rocking Chair” makes him an artist worthy of further investigation. And Bassie Gracie, who is playing the four string for Beans, did a set of her spoken word material personal an empowering she’s clearly a very interesting artist.
What makes Beans so good though, is his ability to write songs about “the incompetent government” one minute but right tender love songs for his wife the next. “Home When I Hold You” is particularly good in that regard.
He also has a way of teasing stories out of everything. “The Golden Lion” is about a pub in the North of England. Still, the characters come alive, well the absolutely superb “Hope And Glory” documents working-class struggle under this most evil of Tory regimes.
Of course, as ever with Beans there are many antiwar songs. It’s just now in the current climate when as he puts it: “we are paying our taxes to commit genocide” “Money For War” and “War On War”, which he plays a little later, are especially poignant.
He does his own acoustic section in the middle of the set which gives him a chance to play his rather legendary at this point “MDMAmazing”, but that is almost the old McAllister if you will, these days he’s a father to a six year old girl, and he plays a wonderful, rather beautiful, three song trilogy to her with “The Dragicorn” especially fun.
There’s a quasi-rap to the anti-capitalist “Robin Hood Costume”, a moment of reflection in “Send Me A Bird” and his old standard “The Chicken Song” before the band return for a funky “The Greenwash” a stand out both on the new album and here with its biting satire on those who sought to commercialise the green economy for their own gain.
“What Would Willie Do “ dials up the country and Memphis Gerald is in top form, before 2019’s rock n roll infused “World Gone Crazy” has even more resonance – sadly – now than it did even then.
Which sort of brings us back to “On And On”, but he reasons that it wouldn’t be right to end the night with a song that claims that there is less war than ever (amazingly it was only written last year), instead encoring solo with “Against The War”.
It is typical of him to end the show in such an empathetic way. There is a reason this concert was the first to sell out on the tour (the same as all his shows do in the second city it seems) and that’s because not only is Beans On Toast, one of the most original songwriters we have in this country. He is also one of its finest live performers. You go to see some acts, and you wonder how much is real and how much is fake and even if they’re enjoying doing what they do. You never feel that when Jay McAllister is in the room. He means- and loves – every single word. And that makes him the special artist that he is.
