The Hives - The Academy , Birmingham - 23rd September 2004
Review by Patrick Wilkins
The ultimate cartoon band do exactly what it says on the tin.This was a show of short sharp songs, plenty of tongue-in-cheek arrogant pronouncements, posing and pouting from singer Howlin' Pelle, and a sweating writhing mass of bodies to appreciate it, but you could have probably guessed that without even being there. As NME pet bands go, this was a far better show than the underwhelming, and similarly sold out, appearance of Kings Of Leon at the same venue a few months ago.The set, start to finish, including encore, was just an hour long, while that may seem short, actually it was more than enough. Given the total (and deliberate) lack of variety in the bands Ramones-in-the-garage material, there is a saturation level that arrives fairly quickly, in my case after about half an hour, beyond that it was something of a stretch to make it to through the second half of the show. The 'hits' were well received by the packed crowd and the crunching riffs of 'Walk Idiot Walk' in particular sounded great live, 'Main Offender' and 'Hate To Say I told You So' also shook the place to the foundations and had the crowd shouting along, limbs flailing around, beer, and various other fluids, flying through the air like some bizarre sprinkler system. Visually the band make up for the repetitive nature of the music with a set of entertaining and well worked routines, they are possibly the ultimate cartoon band. All in matching black outfits with white bow ties, singer Pelle is the main focus, but for the few in the audience old enough to remember pub rock legends Dr Feelgood, lead guitarist Nicholaus Arson (in reality Pelle's brother) does a mean Wilko Johnson impression, complete with bulging eyes and a variety of struts across the stage in the style of a startled chicken. That wasn’t the strangest aspect of the night though, that accolade must go to Pelle's accent, an odd American - Scandanavian drawl that was all his own! I cant say Id make any effort see them a second time, but it was a difficult to come away from this show without a smile on your face, and there's nothing at all wrong with that! |
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Richmond Fontaine - The Academy 2, Birmingham - 17th September 2004
Review by Patrick Wilkins
Impossible not to like, Richmond Fontaine make intelligent music for quiet people. There just isn’t anybody quite like Richmond Fontaine just now, sure, musical comparisons can be made, they can occasionally sound like Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown or Giant Sand, and Willy Vlautin’s vocals could be those of a backwoods Lou Reed, but the ambience they build up is all their own. This visit to the UK is with a full band rather than the duo that played here earlier in the year, on dates with Caitlin Cary. Seeing this band isn't really what you’d call a rock'n'roll experience, more like a cinematic, or even a literary, one, it calls to mind that feeling you get when a book draws you in and you begin to feel part of it. It takes a while for the subtlety and mood of the songs to build into something like an atmosphere, but its then that you find yourself with the band, rather than just watching them. Most of the set was taken from the very well received ‘Post To Wire’ record, with a few numbers thrown in from recently re-released ‘Winnemucca’. ‘Barely Losing’ sounded wonderfully dishevelled, and ‘Hallway’ with the opening line ‘Put down the gun, looks like you’ve been up for days’ sets up all manner of images. ‘Always on The Ride’ even had some diehards in the audience singing along. A big part of the enjoyment of seeing Richmond Fontaine is that they seem to be immensely likable people, this impression is partly created by the fact that they are almost painfully modest, ‘Wow, thanks for applauding' said Willy at one point, and partly by the fact they appear to be a bunch of friends simply having a good time. The lack of rock star pretension (admittedly poverty may well have played a part here!) was also endearing, when Willy broke a string, there was no bank of pre tuned guitars to turn to, instead guitarist Paul Brainerd left the stage to hunt down a string while Willy sung and played on, Paul returning just in time for the final chords of the song! Due to a 10 o’clock curfew and following disco, the band decided not to waste time going off and coming back for the encore, Willy just asked the audience what they would like to hear for the final song 'Western Skyline!' came back a couple of shouts, 'OK' said Willy 'But what do the quiet people want to hear?', that’s Richmond Fontaine, music for the quiet people. |
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The Blasters (Phil Alvin, John Bazz, Keith Wyatt, Jerry Angel) - The Borderline, London - 29th September 2004
Review by Andy Riggs
The Blasters minus the great Dave Alvin were back in London this week, promoting their new record to be released on Monday 4th October on Evangeline Records. Ripping through their back catalogue, mixed in with new songs, and covers, this was a marvellous evening of great music. Phil Alvin looks slightly paunchy these days, but his voice was in great shape 'blasting' through classic Blaster songs 'Red Rose', 'Trouble Bound', 'Long White Cadillac', 'I'm Shakin', 'Border Radio', 'Marie Marie', 'American Music' and Phil Alvin raising the roof with the harmonica on ' So Long Baby Goodbye'. All these songs demonstrated what a fabulous song writer Dave Alvin is and his music (Blasters and solo work) stands up there with the best of Americana). Dedicating songs to Arnold Schwarzaneggar, Lee Allen and brother Dave - 2 hours of music passed like 2 minutes - come back soon Phil, and bring Dave to open for the The Blasters with a solo acoustic show, now that would be something. |
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Rod Picott and Reg Meuross - The Musician, Leicester - 14th September 2004
Review by Jeremy Searle
Not having seen Reg Meuross since his days as a Panic Brother, it’s something of a shock to see him metamorphosed into a fully-fledged English troubadour, with more than a hint of Ray Davies about him. He has a delicate voice and a general air of faint surprise that lends poignancy to his wonderful songs of small yet important and meaningful lives. In particular, “Good With His Hands†is a stunningly elegiac and honest tribute to his father, who, like so many, juxtaposed practical competence with emotional stuntedness, and “Goodbye Hatâ€, which finishes the set, has a singalong chorus that belies its tale of a relationship ending. It all makes for an excellent start to the evening. Rod Picott, on the other hand, is a tall lean hunk of presence that dominates the Musician from the moment he sets foot on the stage. Touring to promote his third album, “Girl from Arkansasâ€, a quieter and more considered set than his previous two, rather fine, efforts, he splits his sets equally between new and old. His songs have a sparse grit to them that’s particularly noticeable in songs like “Broke Down†and Tiger Tom Dixon’s Bluesâ€, especially when compared to boyhood pal Slaid Cleaves’ more showy versions. His voice meanwhile has a mournful and haunted quality that perfectly complements tales like “Bring It Onâ€s beaten down defiance. He’s clearly having a whale of a time and occasionally there’s a slightly surreal contrast between a big goofy grin and a song like “Stray Dogsâ€. The new songs are at least the equal of his earlier work, with “Girl from Arkansas†being as good as anything he’s written. Throughout there’s an effortlessness and a lack of â€performance†that makes you feel as though you’ve just got lucky and stumbled on him singing on a porch somewhere. It’s a privilege to be present on nights like these. |
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Steve Dawson, Gregg Safarty & Adam Reichmann - The Musician, Leicester - 28th September 2004
Review by Jeremy Searle
The second triple bill of songwriters doing the rounds this autumn hit the Musician tonight, in a slightly different format to the first. Each performer does about 30 minutes solo, followed by an interval, then they all come together for the second half. Adam Reichmann opens in a very quiet, minimalist, almost vulnerable way. His oft-remarked Neil Young-esque voice sounds more individual solo, but his mixture of Nadine songs and new material struggles to engage the audience fully, which is a pity, as he is a writer and performer of no little talent, but tonight he doesn’t really manage to project either himself or his songs. Slightly surprisingly, given his UK profile, Steve Dawson comes next. He eschews the traditional acoustic guitar of these shows, and demonstrates some impressive chops on his electric instead. He runs through highlights of the Dolly Varden catalogue, in that voice, and gives the songs a more bluesy, raw feeling than the polished pop of his band. Finally Gregg Sarfaty takes the stage. His voice, while true and engaging, is not the strongest, and even in this environment seems to be a touch quiet, though better than with the band. His gimmick of picking songs titles from a jar results in a 50/50 split between old Stewboss material and new, as yet unrecorded songs, all of which exhibit his trademark rolling groove. The second half is when things really take off though. Things start off with Sarfaty’s “Hope you miss meâ€, which sounds wonderful, and better than it ever did with Stewboss. Steve Dawson contributes sinuous lead guitar, and all three vocals mesh perfectly. Dawson also contributes a heartfelt “Too Good to Believe†a little later. It’s a curious fact that all songwriter tours appear to be contractually obliged to do a Neil Young song, in a shambolic hey-we-haven’t-really-rehearsed-this kinda way, but here we at least get a slightly more adventurous choice than usual in “Everyone knows this is nowhereâ€. But the best is saved for last. The final song of the main set is “Let’s Get it Onâ€, wherein Steve Dawson lets it all hang out and displays a soul voice of awesome power and feel, while the other two chip in where they can, and seem as much taken aback as the audience. As if that wasn’t enough, when the return for the encore, they step down into the audience and do a totally unplugged version of “The Weightâ€, with the audience joining in throughout. It’s moments like these that elevate gigs from the good to the great, and it a marvelous end to a marvelous night. |
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Whiskey, Hope and Heartbreak Songwriters Tour feat. Brent Best, Joe D’Urso and Mickey Kemp - The Bull’s Head, Barnes, London - 13th September 2004
Review by Patrick Wilkins
Brent Best totally outclasses his fellow travellers on his first solo UK visit. This was an unusual venue for this sort music, a jazz and blues pub in the leafy, well heeled, west London suburb of Barnes, about 50 people or so ventured out on this Monday night. Christened the 'Whiskey, Hope and Heartbreak' tour, it featured Brit Mickey Kemp, New Jerseyite Joe D'Urso and Slobberbone singer Texan Brent Best. Each performer sang songs in turn, and for the second half each played a mini set of three songs. Each section closed with all three performers playing together, both Neil Young songs on this occasion, first 'Powderfinger', and to close the show 'Rockin In The Free World'. The three performers together was fine, but the problem with this format was the definite disparity in the relative abilities of each individual. Brent Best was so far ahead of his colleagues here that it was almost embarrassing. Mickey Kemp, to be fair, did acknowledge that he was out of his depth, he wasnt kidding, his jokey home-counties Americana (now there's a sub genre!) was inoffensive enough, if a little cliche heavy, and he seemed a nice enough guy, but on the same stage as Brent Best playing 'Engine Joe' he must have been wondering what the hell he was doing there. Joe D'Urso was a little better off, but not much, as might be expected, given his geographical origins, he seemed to be unable to resist the urge to mimic Springsteen, every song sounded like a minor rewrite of 'The River'. Sitting through all this waiting for Brent Best to play was pretty painful, but fortunately worth the wait. Slobberbone classics like 'Dunk You In The River' and 'Billy Pritchard' were played and sung superbly, and new song 'Ramona', which will hopefully be included on the next Slobberbone record, was terrific. If the next time Brent Best comes to the UK it isn’t with the mighty Slobberbone, please let him play a full set on his own! Whoever put this line up together should be not be allowed to commit such a crime again! |
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Th’Legendary Shack Shakers - Boardwalk, Sheffield - 23rd September 2004
Review by Nigel Dearnley
As a recent convert to alt.country and Americana I've been listening to many new (to me) and unusual artists. You can't get more unusual than Th' Legendary Shack Shakers. Their music has been described as Delta Punk and not since the hey days of Punk have I seen a band live up to the epithet. The music is loud and fast, but is recognizable as having its roots in the home of country music, the Appalachian mountains. The Punk analogy doesn't end with the music but continues with the band especially the lead singer J.D. Wilkes. The Colonel, as he is known, first made an appearance on stage during the sound check. Dressed looking like a High School geek and with a build like a streak of pump water no one expects what comes next. As soon as the show starts he goes wild. His speciality is plucking his pubic hair and throwing it over the crowd.
For someone uninitiated in Th' Legendary Shack Shakers the music was good if a little too much the same. This wasn't helped by the sound which drowned out what is probably a first rate vocal. The guitarist and double bass players, Dave Lee and Mark Roberts, gave their all especially Dave Lee who looks like the meanest son of a bitch ever to get on stage. It's the first time I've been scared of a band.
In the end both the band and the audience were reasonably satisfied with the gig if a little disappointed. The band because on the whole no one got up to dance, the crowd because the sound wasn't the best. Perhaps the big problem was that the average age of the audience needs to drop 20 years or stops worrying they'll make an arse of themselves if they get up to dance. Th' Legendary Shack Shakers are worth a look but don't just sit there, get up and dance to the new craze the Hoedown Pogo |
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The Detroit Cobras - ULU, London - 8th September 2004
Review by Patrick Wilkins
A merely so so performance from the garage soulsters There's something slightly irritating about a band (or maybe it was just the singer) that expects the audience to be going wild merely because they are there, rather then them having to work at making it an exciting show. The fact that much of the audience may well have been there out of curiosity rather than worship of the band is hardly their fault, but almost from the start singer Rachael Nagy was badgering the crowd for being too sedate. Part of the reason for lacklustre reaction from the crowd was lacklustre sound from the stage. The guitars were completely lost for the first few songs, considering they are the engine for the Cobras mix of old soul and garage rock, this was no small omission, and if Rachael had paid more attention to the crowd, rather than unsuccessfully trying to wind them up, she may have heard the many shouts of 'Turn it up!'. Unfortunately the bad sound detracted from the starting number 'Hey Sailor' a vicious and vibrant number on record (the opening track on 'Life, Love and Leaving') but sadly murky and dull in this rendition. Things did pick up as the set went on and the sound got marginally better, though never what you might call good. The band's best known number, following its use in a TV ad, 'Cha Cha Twist' appeared mid set and got a few heads bobbing and bodies moving. When Rachael stopped goading the crowd and got on with her job, she proved she's really rather good at it, a fine throaty soulful voice and a definite stage presence. Finally the crowd warmed to the band and 'Ya Ya Ya' from the recent '7 Easy Pieces' EP had everyone singing and bopping around. Overall though, a shortish set a little over an hour failed to spark into life. In passing, it's worth noting that after the opening band (I missed them) a DJ played, not a DJ in the BPM Fatboy Slim style, but someone who played regular vinyl records one after the other, a mixture of old soul, rock and funk, it sounded great. Steve Miller's 'Living in The USA' pumped out of the sound sytem at maximum volume was a revelation! Unfortunately for the band this was my highlight of the night. |
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Matthew Sweet and Velvet Crush The Mean Fiddler, London-12th September 2004
Review by Patrick Wilkins
A rare and truly thrilling UK appearance from powerpop royalty Matthew Sweet and Velvet Crush. In the past a fear of flying has been blamed for the lack of visits, but after this storming show at the Mean Fiddler a lack of a UK audience should never be an issue. The format was unusual in that Velvet Crush were Matthew Sweet's backing band, and perfect accomplices they proved to be, the show then was split into three, starting with a Matthew Sweet set, then a Velvet Crush set, including a brief intermission, and more Sweet to close. Some artists have an aversion to playing their most popular material, particularly when it first appeared some years ago, not pandering to the masses and adopting the 'I've moved on since then' attitude, but Sweet fully accepted that a lot of the crowd wanted to hear songs from his 1991 career high 'Girlfriend'. He tore into those songs with such venom and raw enthusiasm you'd think he'd just written them. Its hard to believe they ever sounded better than this, 'Divine Intervention', 'Evangeline' 'I've Been Waiting' all roared out from the stage, and the short, sharp encore of the blistering riff loaded 'Girlfriend' was a stunning highlight. Considering the band had three guitarists, all of them capable of ripping out ridiculously hot solos, the sound was crystal clear and the precision of the band, underpinned by the solid drumming of Ric Menck, simply couldn’t be faulted. Sweet, looking a tad larger than some of those old CD cover shots might suggest, was in a cheerful mood, the band having played a Spanish festival the night before which clearly went well, he was also in absolutely great voice, his singing much stronger than you might think from the records. The non Girlfriend material in the set was mostly drawn from the just out 'Living Things', (nobody was sure exactly what was and wasn't released in the UK) and the Japanese release 'Kimi Ga Suki', a couple of the recent songs weren't up to Sweet's highest standard, it could be just be the relative unfamiliarity, but maybe that mid tempo pop-rock template was being adhered to a little too closely. However just when you thought things were fading from great back to merely good, out came a hook laden gem such as 'Sick Of Myself' or the perfect 'Time Capsule' (how that wasn't a huge hit single has to be one of the mysteries of the universe), and the greatness returned. Velvet Crush, still with Matthew Sweet on guitar, kicked off their section of the show with a lively 'Hold Me Up' from their best known record 'Teenage Symphonies to God', and threw in a couple from their new record 'Stereo Blues', 'Connection' in particular sounded good, but good as they were, the standard of songs struggled to make an impact in such close proximity to the Matthew Sweet material. If he comes back here anytime soon, and don't bank on it, on this evidence Matthew Sweet is an absolutely must see performer. |
