LIVE REVIEW : MIKE SANCHEZ AT THE 100 CLUB 08/12/2013

Back at the 100 Club just one week after the Dan Baird And Homemade Sin gig. Sanchez started with a band called The Big Town Playboys in the middle of the eighties. After leaving the band in 1999 he went solo while being a member of Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings (replacing Gary Brooker from Procol Harum). The gig at the 100 Club was billed as Mike Sanchez and his band which means you get to see Mike with Nick Withfield on bow fiddle, Mark Morgan on drums, Tom Bull on guitar, Martin Winning on tenor saxophone (also plays in Geraint Watkins's band) and Nick Lunt on baritone saxophone. He also tours solo and with a smaller line-up colled The Portions that doesn't include Martin Winning.

I had quite high expectations for the gig as all the reviews I had read on the web said Sanchez was an absolutely fantastic performer. The band came on stage just after nine (no opening act but after having witnessed the gig I wonder who would be crazy enough to open for this lot !!!!). After a short introduction where Mr Sanchez explained to us that he had woken up with a stiff neck 3 days before and that it would take him some time to get warmed up, he then proceeded to tear the place apart with a 45 mins set of relentless boogie woogie. The band was simply fantastic tight, special mention to the two guys fro the horn section (they must have lungs made of iron to sustain the sometimes lengthy codas that Mr Sanchez inflicts on them...). Mike's repertoire is almost entirely made up of covers ranging from the end of the 1930's to the 50's but he plays the material with such ease and passion that you would think he wrote the tunes himself.  The gig was made of two parts.. First a 45 mins set followed by a short 15 mins intermission  and then a lengthier second set that finished just before 11.30pm. By the time the gig finished there wasn't a dry patch left on Mike's jacket. He said that he would be back at the 100 Club next April. You can be sure that I will book my ticket as soon as the date is announced.

NICK LOWE : THE ROAD TO THE BRENTFORD TRILOGY AND BEYOND PART TWO

I don't know if it's the lack of major touring after the release of Dig my Mood but it took Lowe only 3 years to write, record and release The Convincer. The cover shot for the album is absolutely great (a kind of "still the Jesus of Cool" vibe emanates from it). As said in the previous part Lowe has now firmly established a pattern in which he makes his records. He hones the songs in his rehearsal space in Brentford till he knows them inside out (same process for the songs he decides to cover), then he proceeds to record them with his regular band and producer/sound man Neil Brockbank. Lowe often explains in interviews that he's not a very prolific songwriter and that he doesn't accumulate songs for albums and record them all in one go. He has to write a batch of 3 or 4 that he really considers good, records them and in return this process gives him the drive to write the rest of the songs to complete the record (The Convincer was recorded over a period of one year in different studios in London). As on Dig My Mood most of the songs deal with pain and heartbreak but there's the odd glimpse of light (the fantastic ode to new found love "She's got soul").

As usual the arrangements are top notch with just the right amount of little additional flourishes that enhance the songs but never distract the listener. Particularly impressive in that domain is "Cupid Must be Angry" (strategically placed after "She's Got Soul") with its clever use of strings and horns, "Homewrecker" with nice organ work courtesy of the "ever-soulful" Geraint Watkins. A few tracks on the LP have become staples of Lowe's live shows, "Lately I've Let Things Slide" which boasts one of his finest set of lyrics, the folk number "Indian Queens" (there's an excellent video of him explaining the meaning of it on you tube) and "Has she got a friend", a distant cousin from 1983's "Without Love" that features some great guitar parts from Steve Donnelly.

If The Convincer had come relatively quick after Dig My Mood, it took Lowe twice as much time to release it's follow-up "At My Age". Due to a series of events in Lowe's life, it was recorded in dribs and drabs. Far from suffering from it, the record feels incredibly cohesive. The mood is a little lighter than on the two previous efforts. Even the songs that treat about lost love do it in a cheerful way ("The Club", the cover "A man in Love"). The tunes are more about reminiscing than regretting. After doing an "anti-macho" song with "All Men Are Liars" on Pinker and Prouder than Previous, he does a tongue-in-cheek "pro-macho" one with "I Trained Her To Love Me" (co-written with long time drummer Robert Treherne). The album is just so consistent, there's no particular stand out tracks, all the Lowe originals are perfectly crafted vignettes with just the amount of words, chords and arrangements. If I was strapped to a chair and tortured, I might go for "Long Limbed Girl" but picking a favourite out of such a batch of good songs is tough. This record is a special one for me because it's the one that made me discover Nick Lowe. I liked it so much that as soon as I saw he was touring Europe I booked a ticket to go and see him play in Madrid at a venue called The Riviera (located surprisingly not far from a river). I spent a huge amount of time trying to find the venue (Spain doesn't do signposting for rock venues, more on that later...). I finally managed to find it (i'd been going past it half a dozen times over the last hour) to see just a few folks queuing for the ticket when the gig was due to start in less than half an hour. I was beginning to wonder if anybody was going to turn up when suddenly one thousand folks materialized behind me in the space of fifteen minutes. The gig was everything I hoped it to be and more. Nick opened with a few acoustic numbers on his own and was joined by his band for the rest the show. The audience was a bit boisterous which ruined some of the quieter songs ("You Inspire Me") but were enthusiastic enough to entice Nick to play a few extra acoustic numbers at the end ("Seven Nights To Rock" and "Heart Of The City"). If you want to check out what Nick is like live, I would recommended his Live at St Lukes show that was recorded for BBC4 (it's on you tube) or the extra DVD on the Quiet Please Best Of that includes a recording of a full band show at The Ancienne Belgique in Brussels.

LIVE REVIEW : DAN BAIRD AND HOMEMADE SIN AT THE 100 CLUB 01/12/2013

Another Sunday night gig  but this one couldn't have been more different than the Autumn Defence show last week. I had heard of Dan Baird and The Georgia Satellites previously as I used to read French magazine Crossroads that championed them pretty often. I was browsing gig listings a couple of weeks ago when I noticed him and his backing band Homemade Sin were playing two nights in a row at the 100 Club on Oxford Street. I checked a couple of songs on you tube and decided that at 15 pounds the ticket it was definitely worth checking them out.

I arrived at the venue just before 8PM thinking that as it was a Sunday gig, it might start early but discovered that I was there 15 mins before the opening act was due to start. The 100 Club is a bit tired looking, I was expecting something similar to The Jazz Cafe in Camden but it was a lot rougher. Opening act was a hard rock cover act (apologies to them, I forgot their name) that featured an ex Judas Priest drummer (recently recruited apparently). Apart from the last song ("Breaking the Law" by Judas Priest) I didn't recognize any of the numbers.

Dan Baird and his 3 piece band came on stage rather casually, they just sound-checked and when everybody was ready started their set straight away. The rhythm section is made of 2 ex-members of The Georgia Satellites : Keith Christopher (bass and impeccably dressed) and Mauro Magellan (drums). The other guitar is played by Warner Hodges who also a member of Jason and The Scorchers. The venue wasn't full (150-200 people when the club can accommodate 350) , maybe most of the fans came to see the Saturday night show ? The sound in the club wasn't the best and Baird was struggling with his monitors and his mic for quite a few songs at the start of the gig. After a change of microphone, things were better but still a bit cavernous (I'd love to hear how they would have sounded in a place like The Half Moon or The Lexington). I'm not familiar at all with their back catalogue but I recognized the cover versions of "Don't Pass Me By" and "Quinn The Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)". The band definitely models itself on the Rolling Stones pre 1973 with a bit of Hard Rock thrown in. The chemistry between band members is is clearly evident, a fact that's highlighted by the great guitar interplay between Hodges and Baird. Their seemed to be a little tension between Christopher and Baird after the second told the first to bring down his volume after the first couple of songs (end of the tour nerves maybe ?). I've got a feeling that I should have gone to the Saturday night gig. The band comes to London every December so I'll make sure I see them again to form a final opinion (and I'll check out their albums too).