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- Written by: Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
(Photo courtesy by Richard Boyles)
The United Kingdom is one of the many places in the world where the arrival in any town of the country of Walter Trout and his Band always feels like the arrival of a Blues Shaman and his tribe.
Many things have been said about Trout and his miraculous return on stage, following the liver transplant that saved Trout's life. Throughout his absence from the music scene, people has never stopped loving the American Guitarist and supported him when it really mattered. Through this Tour, supporting his new album Battle Scars, Trout is playing with his heart and soul even more than the normal, because deep inside he feels that he owes part of his personal and artistic re-birth to his fans.
Frome in UK is the last night of the UK Tour and tonight, once again, a packed house is in anxious wait of one of their most favourite Blues Heroes. His arrival on stage, at 21.25 is welcomed with a gigantic roar from the crowd, with a good 3-minutes standing ovation, even before Trout touches his guitar.
Trout and his boys look in phenomenal shape and sound even better. The openers Help Me and I'm Back are powerful and thundering and Trout's attack on the vocals of I'm Back leaves no doubts about the fact that he is REALLY back. The Huntingdon Beach-based artist waste no time in touching the blues chords of his fans' souls, by executing an excellent version of Say Goodbye To The Blues from one of his best record ever, in my personal opinion, the 1990's Prisoner Of A Dream album.
The show runs fluidly as a steam train on full throttle. When Trout starts playing the tracks from his new album, he jokingly describes the moment as "the depressive part of the show". The songs, all related to the time Trout was in hospital, desperately waiting for a liver donor and hanging on to life by the skin of his teeth, may exude darkness through the lyrics but not certainly through their sound. Omaha and I'm Almost Gone have got a robust, solid rock tempo, but it's on My Ship Came In that Trout and his band offer one of the most intense moments of the evening. It's Trout vintage through and through, with a fantastic guitar solo that throws chills down the spine of the fans.
Trout's Band, once again, proves they are one of the finest music machine around and by Trout's own admission "it feels like we are playing like kids again". Sammy Avila often duets beautifully with his unique, dissonant style on keys with Trout's guitar, especially on the above mentioned My Ship Came In. Michael Leisure on drums is precise and powerful, Johnny Griparic on bass is solid and consistant. They are certainly the ideal band for any bluesmen in the world.
It's great to see as well that Walter Trout's legacy, when it comes to playing guitar and singing, will be around for a very long time through his sons. Jon, Walter's oldest, has been following his father on this tour and appears as Special Guest on a couple of tunes tonight with stunning results. Trout even decides to play, for the very first time, a song from the new album very close to his heart, called Please Take Me Home. The song is about Trout feeling his life running away from him, imploring his wife Marie to take him back home, while Marie surrounds him in her arms, giving him comfort and strength. A very deep, emotional moment of the show.
Trout leaves the fireworks for the very end, by playing what he calls his "one hit wonder, the only time I was in the charts, back in 1991 with Madonna and some others". The Love That We Once Knew indeed projected, at the time, the american artist right to the top of the charts worldwide and tonight's performance of this rock ballad is tender and strong at the same time.
Freddie King's classic I'm Goin' Down lifts up the whole venue and I cannot think of a better way to close a show. The Walter Trout Band is gunblazing the crowd through their rip-roaring rendition of this tune and even the Special Guests, including Stephen Dale Petit (which opened the show as Support Act) plus their Tour Manager and Rock Partner In Crime every time they are touring the UK, Andrew Elt, join on stage. Eight minutes of pure, raw, energetic blues-rock, with Trout's guitar fending the night with his fabulous solos whilst each musician on stage (including an outstanding high-pitched-Zeppelinesque one from Elt) sings the chorus.
When I met Trout, back in June 2015 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, I saw an artist that was timorous about his future. Tonight, I have seen an artist flying again and this time, higher than the sky. Once again, welcome back, Walter Trout
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Battle Scars is out now and available via Provogue/Mascot Label Group
The Walter Trout Band is currently on Tour, you will find all the upcoming events by following this Link
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(Photo by Martin Thomas)
For his own admission, "There is no better place than London to end an European Tour". The UK capital is in for a real treat tonight, with Joe Satriani arriving to town touring his new album, Shockwave Supernova.
Sparkles of great fireworks coming are set alight by an old friend of Bluebird Reviews, the fabulous Dan Patlansky. The South African guitar Virtuoso has been the Support Act for Satriani's last 25 dates of this European Tour and it is virtually impossible to find anybody better than Patlansky nowadays, in the music business, to open a night of rock of such great magnitude.
Patlansky's 3-pieces band offers a very solid 40 minutes set, in which he cannot express enough his gratitude and appreciation to his English fans for supporting his music and to Satriani, for allowing him to be on this Tour. There is the opportunity tonight to hear two brand new songs, Run and Stop The Messing, both included in Patlansky's forthcoming album, expected in 2016. Run, in particular, shows early signs of another potential mega-hit coming for the talented South African guitarist, given the crowd's strong response.
(Photo by Charlotte Wellings)
At 8.30pm sharp, lights go down and the thunderous guitar of Satriani attacks the show with the killer tempo of Shockwave Supernova, the title track of the guitar Maestro's new album. Satriani looks in great shape and unleash his phenomenal artistry and ability throughout the two-hour plus show. The stage offers, in true Satriani's style, some great light effects and a beautiful montage of background images to accompain each tune, just to add some extra spice to this formidable night of music.
Often wrongly depicted as self-indulgent, many people tent to forget that, to maintain high standard of music, in a purely instrumental show like this, it requests an incredible amount of versatility and skills. But that is what separate a genius like Satriani from music Average Joes. The American artist showcases his deep musical understanding by incorporating, in his highly fuelled rock tunes, elements of funk and fusion, to make this incredible live set even more palatable. Every note coming from each tune of the Guitar Maestro's many guitars manages successfully to tell a story, without the need of having a singer on stage.
Crystal Planet is powerful, boombastic and armed of an irresistible guitar riff. Butterfly And Zebra is tender and soulful, with its melody encapsulating perfectly the tale Satriani wanted to tell through his guitar. Crazy Joey is, perhaps, one of the most intense track of the new album and of tonight's show. Satriani reveals it all about himself, in this 5-minutes long, magic tune; there is creativity, fun, skills and playfulness. A touch of genius.
Satriani's band plays also a great role in tonight's show. The class and versatility of Mike Keneally on guitar and keys, the sharp, powerful bass of Bryan Beller and the imperial tempo that Marco Minnemann on drums dictates on each tune, make this band a true rock music machine like very few around.
The fans tonight at The Apollo are in total music Nirvana and, in a tremendous crescendo of music tempo, old and new gems of Satriani's repertoire like Luminous Flesh Giants and Goodbye Supernova, join forces in leading superbly the crowd to the end of a fabulous show.
Satriani and his band look visibly happy about tonight's performance and decide to pull off the most precious ace off their sleeves on their Encore, by executing an incredible version of Surfing With The Alien, which gets the biggest cheer of the night at The Apollo.
There are no many Music Raconteurs around the globe able to deliver the fire and the flare that Satriani's guitar does. A Music Meteorite landed in London tonight, a Music Surfing Alien emerged from it and brought a magnificent night of rock that the Londoners wil remember for a very long time.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
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(Photo by Giovanni "Gio" Pilato)
The power of music is also to make a relatively small club, like The Boileroom of Guildford in the UK, to become a little rock arena, just for one hour. This can become possible just through great artists, those with the capital "A".
Reeves Gabrels is more than a pioneer of music and guitar sound. He was the driving force that helped David Bowie's music throughout the 90's to achieve an exploding combustion of a futuristic and dazzling beauty of sound, allowing Bowie's music to get a new lease of life, through Gabrels' leadership.
As a soloist, Gabrels has published not a lot of albums but whenever it did, the results have always been of great depth and artistic stature. Gabrels is currently promoting his latest album, Reeves Gabrels & His Imaginary Friends around the UK and the show tonight is a little, great gift for this historic club in the south of England.
Opening the show as support artist, in this installment of his European Tour, Gabrels has brought the young and talented Lisa Ronson, daughter of the late great Mick Ronson, another of David Bowie's longtime collaborators. During her set, the young artist offers to the audience an interesting pastiche of sound, suspended half a way between theatricality and synth-pop, the whole accompanied by solid guitar riffs that echo the period of the 90s grunge rock era.
When Gabrels takes centre stage at 9.30pm, with his band, the whole club is transformed into a timeless place of rock worship. For the entire duration of the concert, the American guitarist and composer opens the wings of his immense talent to an audience visibly delighted by the inspiration and genius of this guitar master.
Gabrels, as expected, is performing tonight many of the songs from his latest album. Drown You Out and Zero Effect offer sharp rhymes, at the same time accompanied by powerful guitar arpeggios and very catchy choruses. The bass work of Kevin Hornback cements admirably the Wall Of Sound of a very inspired Gabrels, tonight, in this warm English evening. Wish You Were Her has got a romantic and melancholic tone, supported by a sinuous movement of the always dreamy and always unpredictable Gabrels' guitar sound.
The House Of Usher and Try, the new single just released by the talented New York artist, are executed with the technical and proverbial musical perfection that has become, through the years, the trademark of Gabrels' distinctive alchemy of sound.
Bright Lights, Big City is one of the most intense moments of the show. On this song, Gabrels gifts the audience with an impeccable blues-rock guitar solo, which even champions of the genre, such as Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan, would have loudly approved.
Yesterday's Gone is the natural conclusion of a wonderful show. Often been considered one of Gabrels' highest peaks of his career, the song gives that perfect musical texture to close a rock concert of great quality. A concert that his fans and whoever loves quality music will hardly forget.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
Reeves Gabrels & His Imaginary Friend new single Try now available for download at Bandcamp
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(Photo by Laurence Harvey)
The 100 Club in London is one of the most iconic venues in the UK Capital. From BB King to The Stones, from The Who to the Oasis, just to quote a few, have been performing in this hidden music treasure, deep in the heart of London.
Chantel McGregor, one of the most interesting and promising young British guitarist and singer/songwriter, is here tonight to premiere her new album, Lose Control, the follow-up to her 2011 debut album, Like No Other. The new album, recently reviewed on our website, sees McGregor channeling her music style to a more pronounciated rock direction.
When she arrives on stage at 9pm sharp, McGregor, rigorously dressed in black and in bare feet, wastes no time in attacking the show in style, with a superb version of Caught Out, from her first album. The new album get featured, throughout the night, in full, with few addition from McGregor's 2011's debut. The whole show is highly entertaining and the crowd get a real taste of what the new album is going to sound like. McGregor manages successfully to transfer the energy that transpires in the new album on stage tonight and the response she gets from the fans is highly rewarding.
(Photo by Peter Kemzura)
Burn Your Anger and the new album's title-track Lose Control are incendiary, sonically aggressive and masterfully performed by McGregor and her band, a real treat for rock lovers. Walk On Land is a beautiful promenade into prog-rock territories and one can truly admire not just the true talent and craftmanship of McGregor but also her deep knowledge and understanding of music at 360 degrees. McGregor is not just a talented guitarist but a wonderful singer too. Her amazing singing voice shines throughout the whole show but it stands out even more beautifully in two tracks from the new album called Home and Anaesthetize, with just McGregor on stage with her acoustic guitar.
Lose Control, McGregor's new album, promises to be a real firecracker. Still, the most refreshing performance of the night is the almost-17-minutes version of Daydream from her 2011 debut, in which the whole band enchants the crowd with a dazzling sequence of music improvisations within the song. The level of intensity of the execution on Daydream, tonight on stage, symbolizes perfectly the musical philosophy of this young, inspired artist.
Chantel McGregor is back and is back with a bang.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
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The Meltdown Festival is a music festival where every year, a guest curator chooses acts to come and play at that wonderful venue, which is Southbank Centre. Thanks to the genius of David Byrne (Talking Heads), this year's curator of the Meltdown Festival in London, we are fortunate enough to see a generous number of female artists performing in such Festival. Italy has got a well-deserved presence in this musical kermesse through possibly one of the best singer/songwriter coming from that part of the world, Carmen Consoli.
Consoli has almost re-written the way of approaching music in Italy in the last quarter of a century through a versatile sound formula that stretches from traditional folk style that comes straight from the south of Italy, where she comes from, to latin rhytms or grunge-esque rock, with a very thin layer of pop music. Her songwriting style is pure poetry-on-the-go. Carmen Consoli writes about a woman's universe like no one else does; Consoli's style can be dry, sweet, subtle and naughty at times but always capable to narrate the most intimate feelings of an italian woman through her captivating, poetic approach.
(Photo by La Repubblica - Italy)
The sicilian "Cantantessa", a nickname given to her by Consoli's most devoted fans, has just recently released an album called "L'Abitudine Di Tornare" (The Habit Of Coming Back) and there is a certain trepidation from the crowd about her performance tonight, at the magnificent Southbank Centre in London, given the fact that Consoli had been here in UK last time almost a decade ago.
At 20.45, the lights go down and there is only a little beam of light that point straight to the centre stage, where Consoli decides to surprise everyone by performing a stunning version of the classical "Casta Diva" from Bellini's Norma accapella to open the show. When the other musicians join Consoli on stage, it is rather refreshing to see that the Italian artist has decided to bring an all-female three-pieces band with her on stage.
Consoli is an artist a 360 degrees and her live performance is a true mirror of the deep understanding she has about music. The Italian singer/songwriter is capable, throughout the show, to move gracefully from ballads such as Esercito Silente to torch songs permeated of elements of bossanova like Sintonia Imperfetta (both from her new album) until exploding in pure Sonic Youth-esque rock style on songs such as Per Niente Stanca and Venere.
(Photo by Giovanni "Gio" Pilato)
Her performance never lack of intensity and purity in any moment of the show. The crowd doesn't want to let her go and Consoli comes back again for three Encores, in which she offers, once again, clear signs of her immense artistry and eclecticity. Her acoustic renditions of some of her classics, such as L'Ultimo Bacio and Parole Di Burro and the loud, angry electric finale of Besame Giuda are ultimate examples of how much Carmen Consoli lives and feel deeply her music and her lyrics.
The Meltdown Festival has brought to London a fortnight of starry nights. And one of those stars, one of the brightest, is, without a shadow of doubt, the "Cantantessa" Carmen Consoli.
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
The Meltdown Festival Link
Carmen Consoli Official Website
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By Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
There are places, scattered around the globe, where local people believe so much in music or any other forms of art that they are prepared to go all the way to make it possible. Those are the places that keep the spirit of music, any music, alive and kicking. One of these places is The Old Ford Inn, a pub in the army town of Aldershot, UK, that has hosted wonderful evenings of blues and folk music and tonight, they have managed to bring in one of the best British artists of this generation, Sean Taylor.
Sean is currently touring his latest album, The Only Good Addiction Is Love (reviewed previously here on Bluebird Review) and this evening he is going to perform an intimate, acoustic gig for the local fans before embarking his European Tour.
The venue might be small but the intensity of the performance that the young artist from London carries in his voice and his guitar, almost hypnotize the crowd throughout the whole 70-minutes set. Taylor travels across his whole discography during the acoustic set but personally, I felt the performance reached its pinnacle through two of the tracks on Taylor's new album, The Only Good Addiction Is Love and Bad Light. The purity of Taylor's voice is a rare jewel to find in nowadays' music scene and when he sings, one can feel that he means every word he sings about.
Sean Taylor does not forget the lessons of his music heroes and throughout his set, he pulls out of his magic hat three splendid covers, Hard Time Killing Floor Blues by Skip James, Sixteen Tons by Merle Travis and the powerful Freedom, by Richie Havens, with which the singer/songwriter concludes his concert.
A concert made of class, elegance, simplicity and great artistry at the same time. For one night only, the people of Aldershot felt like a star fell from the sky and shone in their gardens for a little while. That star is called Sean Taylor.
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(Photo courtesy of Dana Fuchs)
I was only 25 when I first heard Live (No More Fish Jokes) by Walter Trout. That album was, and still is, in my modest opinion, the epitaph of what Blues/Rock should sound like. Very few artists have been able to replicate that energy, vibes and intensity that Trout put on that record or in many of his studio albums he has recorded in his long and successful career but they rarely succeeded to do so.
In the last couple of years, horrible and heavy health issues have been very close to take away forever Trout not only from music and family but from life, in a very cruel way. Through the love and devotion of his family and fans, Trout has been able to overcome such issues and is living now a second life, to the point he struggles himself to believe he made it through.
Many people will remember the Lead Belly Tribute evening at the Royal Albert Hall in London on June 15th for the incredible quality of the line-up. Dana Fuchs (what a dynamite!), Laurence Jones, Paul Jones, Jools Holland, Billy Bragg, Eric Burdon, Van Morrison and many others. But Walter Trout stole the whole show. He just couldn't wait to go on stage, he didn't feel like doing anything else than playing tonight.
When that splendid woman that Marie, Walter's wife is, announced him to the London crowd, the whole Albert Hall rose on their feet for three Standing Ovations through the 10 minutes Trout had been on. Walter, visibly emotional, played a couple of tracks, one homage to the late great B.B. King, the other to Lead Belly, joined on stage by the young and very talented Laurence Jones during the whole performance. Apologies to all the readers at Bluebirdreviews about the fact I didn't take any photos. Purposely. I just wanted to feel and breath the whole emotion of that moment. To see Walter Trout on stage again, where he belongs, performing Live, has been an emotional and intense moment for myself and everyone present that night.
The Trout is back again, this time forever
Giovanni "Gio" Pilato
See Walter Trout Comeback on YouTube
