05 August 2009 (gig)
07 August 2009
Since his earliest days with The Graham Bond Organization, Cream and onwards Jack Bruce has been rated as one of the finest musicians Britain has ever produced. Similarly, Robin Trower started out with Procul Harum and then forged a career as a superb and completely individual guitarist with the Robin Trower Band. When they released an album last year – ‘Seven Moons’ – I approached it with some worries because these were two unique and original musicians and neither one was famous for standing in the shadows. The album, of course, is magnificent.
Knowing that both musicians perform at their best in a ‘power trio’ I knew exactly what I was going to find at the Empire and, along with a ‘packed to the gunnels’ crowd, I was delivered a set that showed all the strengths of the individual musicians and showed – if it were necessary – that together they actually add to each others playing.
In short, they were superb.
The material was mainly set around the ‘Seven Moons’ album and Trower’s guitar was shown at its best on numbers like ‘Just Another Day’ and ‘She’s not the one’ where his burning Blues allowed Bruce’s reedy vocals to take the fore while the soloes took the songs on to places only hinted at on the album. Gary Husband’s drums were perfectly suited – a powerhouse when needed and intensely subtle as well and this allowed both the ‘senior’ musicians to play with full freedom..
The audience went suitably crazy when the riff for ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’ started out but impressively Trower didn’t even try to sound like Clapton and his solo was completely Robin Trower. The Trower of classic albums like ‘Bridge Of Sighs’ or ‘Rainbow’ was playing for us and showing just what can be done by a man with a guitar and a shed load of ability.
Bruce’s bass throughout was understated but when you can say more on a 4 string than 99.999% of guitarists can on 6 or 12 you don’t need to show off.
Track after track showed that these two are not musical survivors but are creating music of the highest quality and still satisfying both themselves and their audience.
For me, the imperious version of ‘Bad Case Of Celebrity’ or the encore of ‘Big Black Car’ were the best numbers but there were so many top notch moments and numbers to choose from that it seems churlish to pick one out
Incredibly though the highest spot of the evening might just have been the support!
Joanne Shaw Taylor is a young British Blues guitarist and her style is exciting with perfectly paced riffing and solos and while facing what must be the biggest crowd of her young career she was completely at ease and even seemed to be enjoying herself. The audience certainly fell for her brand of new Brit-Blues and she can only take this as a real green light for her career.
