Skulking around the back of the 100 Club, I notice that while the band is still setting up, someone comes round to hand out fluffy white towels. Is this extreme measure an indication of the frenetic energy build-up about to be released? It seems fairly unlikely given Calexico’s back catalogue.

Opening with ‘Yours and Mine’ from their latest release Garden Ruin, and following it up with ‘Cruel’, an oddly uplifting track considering the lyrics which deal with environmental corruption, singer Joey Burns then moves into ‘Across the Wire’. Instead of the standard album lyrics, the song is transformed with a semi-impromptu (unless exceptionally quick-witted) change of direction, incorporating UK-orientated references which border turning the song into a Richard Digance comedy/folk moment, but still, the crowd lap it all up eagerly enough.

With laughter and joking out of the way, and along with perhaps a slightly odd request from the Tucson, Arizona resident for the Arsenal football score, the band then kick up their heels and move into full mariachi mode. Cue searing vocals, blasts from dual horns and John Convertino’s rolling drums, carrying you along on a virtual journey straight into the Mexican badlands.

Calexico play tightly together, perhaps almost to the point the precious spark defuses, and with the heavier moments not quite managing to carry to the next level, my interest starts to wane a touch.

For the most part the rest of the band take a back seat to proceedings, leaving Joey Burns to go it alone, but he moves things along with chatty dialogue and judging by the response from the audience he is doing his job well. The band finish with ‘Alone Again Or’, a cover of a track by Love written by Bryan MacLean. A long encore request brings the band back on for a few more numbers before they finally depart.

Calexico seem genuinely pleased to be playing an intimate venue such as the 100 Club, where they can build a rapport and generate more than an autonomous audience standing around with mundane expressions on their faces. With Calexico you get something else, a feeling of depth and warmth which lasts with you all the way home, maybe even to Arizona to catch them on their home turf where Joey may struggle a tad more to find out how Arsenal are getting along.

(4/5)

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