|
He looks razor sharp with his short hair and
bono-esque shades, and really healthy looking too - obviously life
in LA treats him well. No, not Long Ashton, Los Angeles!!!
Crave from the latest CD kicks things off in
fine style and sounds way more powerful in the live setting than on
the new CD. Same with the songs F.U.N.K., Never Say Never, Oil and
Water - the twin guitar assault from old stalwart JJ Marsh and new
boy Luis Maldonado benefiting from a rawer edge of the live setting
over the slight restrain of the studio.
By this point it's clear that Hughes in in
fine voice, and his bass playing is at the top of his game too. How
he's managed to keep his magnificent vocal range intact after all
these years is a mystery I'm sure some of his slightly more famous
old vocal sparring partners would love to find out about. I'd
suggest that maybe there's some sort of pact with the devil going
on, but it's probably a deal done with the guy at the top of the up
escalator in Glenn's case!!
JJ takes a solo spot to introduce "a song you
all know", which after a few minutes of restrained blues licks and
volume-backed-off arpeggio sweeps on his rather nice looking Gibson
Les Paul, turns out to be Mistreated. And what a version too -
Hughes revelling in covering the full vocal from a song that he used
to share with David Coverdale back in the old Deep Purple days.
There's an extended vocal and keyboards only ending that allows him
to repeatedly demonstrate the control he has over both the upper and
lower end of his range, which by the end of the song even has
drummer Matt Goom on his feet applauding - amazing!
Oh yeah, I should probably mention that
keyboard player Anders Olinder is from Bristol - obviously not
originally, but that's where he lives when not sat behind the keys
on stage with Glenn. Not a bad band to join as his "first proper
rock band" either, or so Glenn claimed when introducing him.
After a dip back into Music For The Divine for
You Got Soul, it's straight back to the newest stuff for We Shall Be
Free, another track that really beefs up well in the live setting,
while still retaining the heavy groove thing going down on the CD.
We were definitely feeling the funk by this stage of the set……..
Don't Let Me Bleed from Soul Mover is up next,
and now we have everything - restrained guitar and keys at the
start, before all hell lets loose on the awesome riff from this
mid-tempo rocker, more quite stuff in the verse, before hitting the
stratosphere for the chorus. Truly superb…...
We get a few little speeches, with
acknowledgements to friends from the past in the press or people
associated with his previous bands, including a few moments
dedicated to Mel Galley, his old guitar player from the
Trapeze/early solo days, who's recently been diagnosed as terminally
ill with cancer. It was clear Glenn was finding that particular
moment a tad difficult to handle…….
The set closes with a duo-jam thing that
starts off with Love Communion from the new CD before moving into a
very loose funked up version of Steppin' On, another of his more
recent songs, showing that Hughes isn't one to trade as firmly on
his past as a couple of the other older acts doing the rounds have
tended to do. He jokes about not being able to remember the 80's at
all, so rarely dips into that era these days for his live sets, but
on this showing most of the 90's must have been a bit of a blur too,
as the set was drawn from just the latest release and the previous
two CD's - with the obvious exception of Mistreated. Fair play in my
view too…..
For the encore we get a powerhouse Soul Mover,
which has JJ and Luis really going for it either side of the stage
on a couple of old looking Fender Strats, but that's just the fire
lighter for final number Burn, which also features some amazing
question and answer solos from the two guys on the geetars. The
arrival of young upstart Luis, who reminds me a little of Nuno
Bettencourt from Extreme, in looks/attitude and style from time to
time too, seems to have really fired JJ up a treat.
Glenn gives us the parting news that he's due
to be back at the Robin 2 in September for an intimate
acoustic/unplugged evening, also set to include a Q&A from the
crowd. Maybe I'll go and ask how he keeps his voice in shape, and
then sell the answer to Coverdale, Robert Plant, Ian Gillen and even
Joe Elliot - should make me a bloody fortune…….
But, before I do that, I get to see the whole
damn thing over again at the Astoria 2 in London a few days later,
dragging along a couple of colleagues from work for good measure
too. We were supposed to be at a big evening bash down in Docklands
after an all day conference thing, but we decided that a trip into
town was a much better option, so slipped away quietly for some
funk. They had no idea what I was babbling on about, but fair play,
they trusted me……...
The crowd is a bit smaller than last week, and
the venue is too, but once again there's a definite air of
excitement that does enough to make you nearly forget that a can of
Red Stripe is over £3 at the bar!! Damn those London prices…… Glenn
had let the cat out the bag at the Wolverhampton gig that something
special was going to happen in London, and hinted again during the
first few words in between the opening salvo of new material that we
needed to be prepared for "some insanity" later.
As promised, with the applause from Mistreated
still filling the room, a substitution takes place at the back and
we now have Chad Smith from the Chilli Peppers on drums for the rest
of the set - and what a man to bring on from the bench and beef up
your defence!! Now, as you know, I'm originally a bass player and
thought I knew a thing or two about the difference a solid drummer
can make to the sound of a band, but even I was amazed at the
difference Chad's arrival made. The energy level just seemed to lift
everything to a new level, as he basically beat the living crap out
of the kit, and he's built like a brick shit-house!! He even gets a
ticking off from Glenn at one point 'cause he'd not chilled things
out quite enough in one of the quiet extended sections, but brings
it all back with a bang once the groove kicks back in with a
vengeance. I can see why Glenn has recorded his last three CD's with
Chad behind the kit - the man is complete fucking monster of a
drummer. Nearly had me taking up the bass again, and getting back to
my rhythm section roots. I did say nearly…….
Anyway, we get the same set, some similar in
between song patter, some familiar moves from the two axe-wielding
maniacs either side of the stage and some more Red Stripe for good
measure - phew!!. I'm now off to copy the last three CD's for my two
work colleagues, 'cause they loved it all nearly as much as I
did……...
|
