Review: Jim E. Brown at The Quarry

Were it not for his troubles with obesity, alcoholism, and his several degenerative conditions, one would be tempted to envy 19-year-old singer/songwriter Jim E. Brown.

Having written songs as catchy and honest as ‘I Know I’m Going to Die of a Stroke’, ‘I’m Quitting Prozac to Continue Drinking’ and ‘I’m About to Fall Over in Asda’, Brown is prodigiously talented.

For a man, at least based upon his musical back catalogue, so weary of his existence, a real sense of excitement and anticipation pervaded the beginning of Brown’s gig at Liverpool’s newly relocated Quarry.

In the packed basement of the venue, fellow concert-goers enthusiastically discussed their favourite Jim E. Brown songs, while speculating over whether he really is the 19-year-old obese alcoholic with several degenerative conditions he professes himself to be.

However, before discussing the gig itself, I’ll provide a quick primer of Brown’s polymathic achievements for those uninitiated to the many shades of Brown.

The Emil Cioran of novelty pop, a self-described ‘fat fuck’ and ‘dirty bitch’, Brown is a songwriter, author and Instagram food critic.

Since his 2021 debut, ‘Jim E. Brown Sings His Love Songs’, Brown has released 9 further studio albums, a live album, three volumes of memoir, and a romantic novella to an ever-growing, evermore cultish fanbase.

An Eeeyore-like performer of songs of sorrow and heartache, Brown is like Morrissey if his artistic inspirations were chip butties and days spent in Wetherspoons rather than the literary works of Oscar Wilde and Shelagh Delaney.

In Liverpool to promote his new album, the 26-song opus ‘I Urinated on a Butterfly’, Brown entered the stage armed with a pint of Guinness, before performing the album’s title track to raucous cheers and applause from the crowd.

Halfway through the set, Brown performed a cover of ‘Linger’ by The Cranberries, which, like Nirvana’s iconic cover of David Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold the World’, seemed to overshadow its musical predecessor in emotional power.

Between songs, Brown spoke movingly about losing custody of his son Tanner, and his unexpected romance with a woman named Judge Miranda, who he told us had previously stripped him of custody over his son.

Throughout the set, Brown took requests from the crowd, leading to performances of Brown classics like, ‘I’m Naked in My Room Huffing Nitrous Balloons’ and an apt acapella performance of ‘A Rat Bit a Baby’s Face in Liverpool’.

As a result of Brown having forgotten how to play the latter song on guitar, Brown’s lyricism was all the more striking.

Only 19, but wise beyond his years, (although it is worth noting that Brown has claimed to be 19 for the past 4 years), Brown seems a testament to the adage ‘it’s not the years, it’s the mileage’.

Consuming five pints brought to him by audience members over the course of his hour on stage, Brown remained in character for the whole evening and was happy to stick around after the concert’s end for signings and photos.

Equally hilarious and horrifying, sobering and intoxicating, a night with Jim E. Brown is not to be missed.

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