JAMES OLIVER BAND/DIRT ROAD BAND
Musician Pub 15th October 2024
What a night that was at The Musician Pub... two of the best rock bands on the circuit delivering an hour of magnificent music apiece... and all for £12.... c'mon... you cant beat that!
First up was the wonderful James Oliver Band. They opened with a bang rocking like crazy, James clearly on top of his game, Chris pounding the bass and Mark drumming up a storm... the band are all superb musicians and their talents come together to make something special. The set was a mix of original material much from the new album and great covers... early on the first cover was "American Cars", an absolute favourite... from there we slowed down for some blues before picking up the pace again...
The band play fluent high energy rock'n'roll and blues... maybe more 50's style R&R with I feel a hint of country/americana in there at times... and the pace doesn't slacken... this is music to love and with James' larger than life personality shining throughout you cant help but love the band...
As the show progressed the band rocked harder and climaxed with a stunning version of Dick Dales' "Misirlou" which had the audience cheering the band to the echo... an absolutely magnificent set delivered with energy, good humour and a real sense of joy... superb
During the interval the thoughts were along the lines of "How the hell do you follow that?"
A short break, and up stepped the superb DIRT ROAD BAND to show exactly how you follow it... they cracked into their set with gusto and huge energy, Steve Walwyn is another superb musician and the pedigree and quality of the band beyond question, with the legendary Horace Panter on bass and Ted Duggan on drums.
The band have the same line up as James' band, but the two are totally different in approach and style... DRB are a more modern power trio style rock band, with elements of one of Steve previous bands, Dr Feelgood, and the legendary Rory in there...
They also deliver a mix of originals and covers in their set, and no Steve Walwyn/DRB gig would be complete without something by Rory and something by Dr Feelgood... and true to form we got glorious versions of "Laundromat: and "Down to the Doctors" both of which were ecstatically greeted... the set continued with originals, including a fine song by Horace Panter and blues standards... a fabulous set ended with a piece associated with Rory, (though not written by him... but the Rory version remains definitive in my eyes) "Bullfrog Blues"... all delivered with tremendous power and virtuosity... an inevitable encore... which Steve introduced as an old southern folk song... so a rip-roaring "Route 66" closed out a second superb set of the evening.
Both of these bands are worth the £12 admission and more... and to see them both on one bill... two absolutely superb sets by two very different but equally superb rock'n'roll bands, each set leaving the audience awestruck and on a high... and leaving on a high with the music of both bands filling the consciousness...
Absolutely superb night... rock'n'roll at it s very best... loved every second
Keep music live... keep music real... support your local venues
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