De la Warr Pavilion, Bexhill,
Mon 16th Nov
“Bexhill!” bellows main man Mike
Scott at the climax of their first number. Mischievously aware that
this is not the most rock'n'roll word to shout. But the gag turns out to
be double-edged.
Last time they played these halls it was to revisit the classic
album 'Fisherman's Blues'. Their best-known era
consisted of Celtic folk with a side-order of Americana. This set
starts, closes and is dominated by new numbers. (Not just taking up
over a third of the set, but front-loaded in the running order.)
Last time, I made a gag about a
Scotsman, an Englishman and an Irishman getting together. This time
every member of the band, bar Scott and the fiddle of stalwart Steve
Wickham, is a Yank. While the latest album, 'Modern
Blues', was recorded in Nashville. An album which may well
be best described by the band's own website, as “an electric,
soulful, bold, freewheeling rock'n'roll record with a skinful of
killer new songs”. The jacketed bass player looks remarkably like a
solicitor from small-town Surrey, and makes John Entwistle look a
master of stage moves. Yet he turns out to be David Hood, from the legendary Muscle Shoals rhythm section the Swampers.
In short, Scott truly is
bringing rock'n'roll to Bexhill. A band who should have long since
been stuck on cruise control come up with the most kick-ass, rootsy
rock'n'roll you've heard in a long time. “I'm still a freak,”
Scott sings. “I never went straight.” Wheezy, swirly organ
suffuses each track, sounding like a log fire feels – like being
bathed in warmth. Almost every number goes into a wig-out
instrumental section, which gets unhinged even by Waterboys
standards.
Even when they turn to old numbers,
they get swept up in this new fervour. 'Medicine Bow,
stirring and expansive in the original, is now fiery and propulsive.
Then, in a fiddle-dominated coda, turns into something from the
Cale-era Velvets. They even do the double from their last appearance,
and provide the second time I've actually liked the hit
'Glastonbury Song'. In fact its the more
traditional version of 'Whole of the Moon' which
doesn't quite spark up.
Perhaps the most crucial thing is that,
even as it proudly wears the influence of the great music of the past
to the point of name-checking influences, its never referential.
Scott is simply taking the music he likes and making more of it.
Reviewing the album in the equally rock'n'roll Telegraph, Neil McCormick suggests
“Scott is perhaps the closest thing we have to a Neil Young figure
in British music, ranging across folk, blues and country.” And he
probably is.
Its one thing to see a longstanding
band and be cheered they're still coming up with decent material. Its
another to walk out thinking “these guys should really
be planning a live album right now. This stuff needs getting down.”
Scott's mission to take rock'n'roll to
unlikely places continues with this version of 'Still A
Freak' from Brussels...
...plus, from Bexhill itself,
Fisherman's Blues' for the encore. With added
“whoo-ho-hoos” from the audience...
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