Tuesday 10 March 2009

Cut in the Hill Gang at Brixton Windmill 20/2/09


Johnny Walker returns to the UK with his new band at last. The demise of the Soledads was a real shame and I can't think of any other band plugging the filthy dirty blues rock hole left behind. Having seen the Cut in the Hill Gang I now know why the Soledads split. They're still a two-guitars-only band, but where Johnny used to lead over the second guitar, now the new guitar player takes the lead, playing to the next level and you get a much more intricate sound, and it works brilliantly. Gone is the giant saxophone of Soledad days which, although looking cool, was over used to my mind, just honking around, Muppet style, and not really adding that much. JW is still a great frontman, halfway between nerdy geek and cool as hell old school Detroit blues man. The other guitar player though is pure geek - he needs a makeover as the Soledad's definately scored higher on image.

For a two-song finale Ben Swank joins them on the drums to rattle through a couple of old Soledad's numbers. Yes, we do miss his deranged playing style. But the Soledad's are dead. Long live Cut in Hill Gang! (5/5)

No comments:

Post a Comment