Dan Patlansky

Dan Patlansky is an artist that never disappoints and it has been fascinating watching his progression from relative unknown, through the smaller venues on the circuit and finally selling out venues the size of O2 Academy.

Last night was no exception to the standards he has set over the last few years and the crowd was rammed last night in Islington in expectation of a full set of originals.

This is the second time I’ve seen him this year and, as he said, not touring behind a new release gave him the opportunity to play some old favourite he hasn’t played for a while. So we got numbers from the ‘Dear Silence Thieves’ album, ‘Introvertigo’ and his latest ‘Perfection Kills’ and they fitted into a great set of tracks showing both his development and his sheer talent.

His vocals were strong and he shows a great presence onstage but the crowd were there for his stellar guitar playing and he tore it up on hard Blues/rock, slow Blues and the funkier stuff as well.

Crowd favourites were definitely his killer version of ‘Heartbeat’, where he and the band caught a rare groove and really dug into the urban side of his sound, and the huge and soulful Blues of ‘Judge A Man’ where his guitar really pealed out to an awestruck crown.

He was playing a relatively young guitar last night (his #sortofcaster), not the old and beaten up Strat he is normally seen with but it didn’t stop him attacking the guitar with very little apparent care for its longevity – he does things with an axe that should be illegal in civilized society but the sounds he got from it on the closer ‘My Cherie’ were something no-one else would even attempt.

A terrific set left a very happy crowd at the end.

Support for the night were Gorilla Riot. Not a band I am familiar with but that is gonna change!. Excellent set of Southern flavoured rock (although they are from Manchester) with real passion and talent. Not common to see the support band get heads banging but they definitely managed it.

Picture by Robert Sutton