LIVE REVIEW : BRENDAN BENSON AT DINGWALLS 21/08/2013

 Back at Dingwalls for the second time this year (after the Geraint Watkins gig in March, just in case you start looking for the review it doesn't exist...). It was my third seeing him live. First time was a gig in a small town called Alencon in France during the "Alternative to Love" tour, the turnout was absolutely abysmal (80 people in the audience roughly) but the band was absolutely great and compensated the "inevitable" lack of enthusiasm due to playing in front of such a small audience with excellent musicianship and tightness. Second time was a different story. Playing to a packed "Nouveau Casino" in Paris 2009 (one hell of a shit sounding venue) thanks to his new-found rock celebrity as a member of "The Raconteurs", Mr Benson churned out a competent gig but something was missing and I found at the time that Mark Watrous wasn't on the same level as Dean Fertita that he was replacing on 2nd guitar/keyboard duties. I hadn't attented the tour promoting his latest LP "What Kind Of World" when it came out (partly due to the fact that no tour stop was in a 200 kms range from where I was living and also because on first listen that record was one hell of a disappointment for me). Nevertheless I welcomed the offer of another dose of Mr B live which might help me to revaluate the songs from his latest release.

Sonia and I were meeting up with our friend Chris and we made it inside the venue half way through the second opening act's set. After a really short break, Brendan and his band came on to a rather good welcome fron the crowd (he's definitely more popular in London than in Alençon...). Opening with two tunes from "What Kind Of World" : "Light Of The Day" and "Happy Most Of The Time", I was pleasantly surprised to see that in a live setting these songs gained the extra-oomph that's missing on the record. The Set-list relied quite heavily on "What Kind Of World" and "Lapalco". Only one measly tune from "Alternative To Love" and "My Old Familiar Friend". Nevertheless a welcome addition to the set was the addition of two songs from The Raconteurs ("Hands" and "Steady As She Goes"). Mark Watrous made a better impression on me than 4 years ago and so did Brad Pemberton the drummer. Brendan was his usual quiet self, not saying much between songs and even asking Watrous to imitate a Croatian promoter they had encountered during their travels (providing some much needed inbetween song banter). A good gig that could have benefited from a few extra songs from his back catlogues (gig lasted just over 1h15 mins)