30 October 2009 (gig)
31 October 2009
For twenty years Britain has been very good to Walter Trout and in return he plays here every year and sells out venue after venue – I guess they call it a symbiotic relationship.
The Empire was packed out on Friday night with the upper tier standing room only alongside the stalls and when Trout and his band ambled out on to the stage the roar was painful. Walter made the sort of gesture to the crowd that you might make entering a party and among friends, getting another big cheer, and picked up a pure white Strat and kicked off.
The thing about Walter Trout is that he does a very particular thing; he plays Blues guitar; he plays it hard and with big solos and he writes music for the ordinary joe – the guy who has to do two jobs for the mortgage and whose wife runs around the town spending his money or playing the field and who just likes to kick back at the weekend with a six pack and football on the teevee. And people love the thing that he does and turn out to hear him testify which he does with real guts and brio. You know that he isn’t going through the motions.
So at the Empire we got classic Walter Trout. 'Working Class’, 'Life In The Jungle’, 'So Afraid of the Darkness’ with Walter playing for all he is worth and Sammy Avila rolling out huge Hammond organ rills and solos, Rick Knapp playing hard on his classic Fender Precision bass and the huge figure of Michael Leasure on drums bashing out a surprisingly subtle backing.
One of the biggest cheers of the night was when he played a song in honour of Jeff Healey but he didn’t try to ape Healey, he just played Walter Trout music as he would have with his old friend.
He did nothing that we don’t expect but he played with real heart and played for the audience and not just to them. He really 'gets’ his audience and in 35 years in the business he has developed and he has built on the strengths in his arsenal but as his latest album has it – shamelessly plugged of course – he is 'Unspoiled By Progress’. Trout has played with some of the best guitarists and band leaders around and mentored more than his share and every contact has added to his playing: he has progressed but he sure ain’t spoiled.
