LIVE REVIEW : RODRIGUEZ AT THE ROUNDHOUSE 14/11/2012

Seventies Detroit singer-songwriter Rodriguez is making quite a fantastic comeback. After vanishing into obscurity for almost 30 years, he was invited to tour south-africa in the late nineties prompting a gradual comeback that culminated in the release of a documentary last year entitled "Searching For Sugar Man". In between those two events, there was live dates in the UK and the US andf the re-release of his long out of print albums by Light In the Attic in 2008. To show the effect that "Searching For Sugar Man" had on Rodriguez's popularity, you just have to compare the venue he played for his last London gig in 2009 (The Union Chapel) with the venues he was playing this year (3 nights at the Roundhouse and one night at the Royal Festival Hall). I managed to get a tickets for the 1st night at the Roundhouse. When I booked the ticket I was expecting it to be a Rodriguez solo show but discovered that he would be backed by a band from Brighton for the whole UK Tour. I had seen him on youtube playing a gig for KEXP radio in Seattle and the backing band was superb so I was hoping that the English guys would live up to that. Rodriguez arrived on stage guided by a minder, he's in good shape physically but his eyesight seems to be really bad. For the first 3 songs, he had a mic attached to his mouth but the sound coming out of it wasn't very good so it was removed and replaced by a normal mic on a stand.

The first impression I had was that the band hadn't had enough time to rehearse with Rodriguez. The bass player was doing a good job but the drummer and the guitar player were stiff. They didn't seem to be able to lock with Rodriguez's groove. Despite this shotcomings Rodriguez's seemed really pleased to be there. Highpoints of his first album got the most applause ("I Wonder", "Sugar Man", "Establishment Blues"). "Sugar Man" was described by Rodriguez as a "descriptive song not a prescriptive song" followed by a "be smart, don't start" slogan that got him a few boohs from several audience members. Originals were intersped with cover songs ranging from Franck Sinatra to Elvis Presley numbers. In-between song banter give Rodriguez the opportunity to share some really awful jokes (one about minnie mouse and goofy was particularly bad), but they were told with a kind of laid back charm that made them funny in the end. Best moment of the evening was his solo version of "Learning the blues" played during the encore. Hopefully next time he'll play the whole gig like that. I encourage everybody to check out his two records (especially the first one "Cold facts"), they're really worth it.