LIVE REVIEW : LUKE HAINES AT BUSH HALL 03/06/2014

I had left Mr Haines last London gig slightly disappointed. After the glorious evening that was The North Sea Scrolls at St Pancras Old Church, that solo gig  in the wonderful setting of the Elgar Room at the Royal Albert Hall didn't tick all the boxes for me. I think it probably had something to do with the song selection that relied strongly on Haines's then latest release "Rock'n'Roll Animals", a great album but not one that I think withstands the solo acoustic treatment too well. I wasn't particularly excited by the couple of new songs from the forthcoming New York in the 70's album either ("Alan Vega Says" and "Lou Reed Lou Reed") . However when a full band gig at Bush Hall was announced and with the promise of a full performance of the Baader Meinhof album thrown in the mix, I know I had to attend or I would regret it till the day I died.

It was only my second visit at Bush Hall and I was wondering if the sound was going to be better than the one for Electric Soft Parade gig last November which was pretty cavernous (much better it turned out to be). Haines was backed for the gig by a young rhythm section (different guys from the ones that were backing him when I first saw him in Manchester in 2009). The venue was almost full, clearly proving the Baader Meinhof album's followers is growing, almost 20 years after its rather muted release. Haines had left his usual black Les Paul at home and had pulled out his Telecaster from the After Murder Park - Baader Meinhof period out of its cupboard for the night. The first part of the show was the new album "New York in the 70's" in its entirety and the whole thing was great from start to finish. I haven't heard the album yet but I've read it's supposed to be quite synth heavy but the power trio versions were fantastic. Haines seemed to be enjoying playing with a band again after spending a few years playing solo gigs. After finishing the last song from the album "NY Stars", Haines announced there was a change of plan and that he was going to play all his B-Sides backed by an Orchestra before launching into Baader Meinhof. Although he plays the track regularly at his solo gigs, this full band version really gave the song its full power. Highlight was an absolutely fantastic version of "Mogadishu", probably the best song ever written on Somalia's capital.

After a short break, Haines came back on stage to play a few songs on his acoustic guitar. Starting with "Inside The Restless Mind of Rollerball Rocco", he followed it with "Rock'n'roll Animals" and "21st Century Man" (that included "Junk Shop Clothes" in the middle). The full band came back on stage to reprise "Lou Reed Lou Reed" to close a rather glorious evening.

LIVE REVIEW : THE ELECTRIC SOFT PARADE AT BUSH HALL 23/10/2013

 That gig was a bit of a last minute affair. I'd been humming and hawing about it for a while. I wasn't very familiar with anything ESP had put out since their first album and I had the Jason Falkner the following night. I made my mind up on the day of the gig and decidedto skip the 2 opening acts (not very nice I know but I needed some rest before the gig). I arrived at the venue round 8.30pm halfway through set of second opening act "Cold Crows Dead", I won't say anything about their set as I wasn't receptive at all to the music they played. Apart that they seem also to come from Brighton, they didn't have anything in common with ESP.

ESP came on stage at 9.30pm with the White brothers accompanied by a four piece backing band with a female vocalist on a few numbers. The brothers seemed genuinely pleased by the turnout. I recognised quite a few numbers from the new record but the new numbers from recent LP "Idiots" sustained the comparison pretty well with older songs. The show was marred by quite a few sound issues, the sound in the venue was really cavernous and Alex White seemed to be really struggling with his monitors. Thomas tried to cheer him up during the gig but he seemed to be really pissed off about it (things took a turn for the worse when Thomas pinched his brother's backside halfway through the gig). The backing did a great job, they all seem to be long time collaborators of ESP. It would definitely have been a mistake not coming to that gig and I highly recommend the purchase of their latest LP which is their best record to date.