May 18 at the Corn Exchange is not going to be remembered by Duke Garwood as one of his best gigs.
A very favourable write up in the program, mentioning the guitarist’s work with Mark Lanegan, his critical acclaim and describing his guitar playing as ‘as close to heaven as you can get’ ensured an almost full house.
And it began well, the ‘virtuoso guitarist’ backed by five musicians, producing a swirling mass of guitars and distorted feedback and drums and percussion, with Garwood’s gravel voiced vocals dipping in and out and promising deeper layers to come. Unfortunately what followed was just variations on a theme.
In fact the tracks (I hesitate to call them songs) were so similar it was almost as if the gig was one long jamming session, with a few breaks for the audience to clap every so often.
A shout from the audience of ‘Earn your money’ preceded a number with a bit more energy, but after an hour of understated bluesy distorted guitars the audience began slipping away.
Duke watched the exodus with a shrug. ‘Well not everyone likes sex funk,’ he drawled, before launching into another number indistinguishable from the last.
One got the feeling that he just didn’t care that much, and after an hour of this, neither did much of the audience.
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