It’s Sunday night at The Caves in the depths of Edinburgh’s Old Town to witness rock’n’roll debauchery at its finest from His Lordship.
Tonight’s opening band are ‘Bruno And The Outrageous Methods Of Presentation’…..They are frantic and remind me of punk bands I saw in the USA back in the day. The frontman Bruno is a total dynamo never staying still, spitting out the lyrics with great intensity while his bandmates keep things steady behind him. This is a band you need to see live to appreciate just how good they are as the live aspect will certainly be lost if you stream or listen to a CD. It’s the energy and antics of Bruno which make this a band to see. And seeing is believing.
I was fair chuffed finding out about 2 hours before the gig that The Strange Blue Dreams are on tonight’s bill as they’re a band I’ve seen before and its members play in other bands so knew the audience would be in for a treat and so it proved to be. A 30 minute set of highly infectious tunes played by 5 fantastic musicians most of them called ‘Dave’…. I always hear a lot of different musical genres when this band play and tonight it was opera, country, calypso & spaghetti western sounds which all makes for a spectacular gumbo of a performance which went down a treat with tonight’s great crowd who are all here for the music as there’s no noticeable chatter during any of the bands’ sets, as it should be but unfortunately isn’t the norm these days.
His Lordship is guitarist James Walbourne and drummer Kristoffer Sonne, augmented on this tour by bassist Dave Page. The collective experience on show is something to behold. Sonne has drummed for Chrissie Hynde and Willie Nelson whilst Walbourne holds down guitar duties for The Pretenders and The Pogues.
His Lordship announce themselves by rattling their way through an opening salvo of fast and furious punk-era style rock ‘n’ roll. Walbourne is a man on a mission. His Lordship have laid out their stall and intentions are set, this is going to be some gig.
This band don’t so much play rock and roll, they chew it up and spit it out in a frenzy that leaves you breathless.”
There was no let up for one second, crunching riffs, thunderous bass and maniacal drumming so in tune with each other it is extraordinary to watch. It’ hard to pick any highlights from the set such is the sheer quality of tune after tune they rattle out but Walbourne dedicates an instrumental number to Jerry Lee Lewis which is my favourite of the night which is saying something as every song is amazing.
Behind all the gritty riffs and Chuck Berry duck-walks is a superb guitarist at the top of his game. His partnership with Sonne is inspiring as they bounce off each other to reinvent the music they love, brilliantly supported in the live shows by bassist Dave Page.
The unrelenting pace is reduced slightly by Santos and Johnny’s classic instrumental Sleepwalk before the slow burn of ‘The Repenter’ from the latest release. There’s a fast paced quite rockabilly number in ‘Joy Boy’ with some quite high pitched vocals and the final instrumental, ‘Cat Call’ which is a driving fast paced offering.
His Lordship take a final bow with a supercharged take on Billy Lee Riley’s classic Red Hot, a title which sums up the whole show superbly.
It is great to see many happy faces exiting The Caves having been witness to rock n roll debauchery at its finest, and feeling a little dirty and debased. Bad music for bad people…
Small shows are struggling right now and without these kind of punters who come out on a Sunday evening it will continue to be a fight but I for one am a big believer in the “If You Build It They Will Come” and the two brothers who run the promotion company ‘UNDER THE WIRES’ who put on tonight’s gig and a host of other throughout the year certainly deserve success as their band choices are always sublime.
Words & pictures: Stuart Stott @stuarty33