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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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VELVET VIPERS, Yale
Hotel, Vancouver, 27th September 2005
NORTH MISSISSIPPI ALLSTARS,
Commodore Ballroom, Vancouver, 28th September 2005
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| On
the face of it Vancouver’s Yale Hotel, originally
a bunkhouse for railroad workers, and then a hostel
for transient loggers and prospectors heading north
(and no doubt also for many, struck by ill-fortune
and unrealised dreams, heading south), seemed like
a good end point for our British Columbian adventure.
It is, after all, the self declared home of rhythm
and blues in Western Canada, and I have to observe,
a venue of such quality - even the one drunk, dressed
unseasonably in shorts and Hawaiian shirt, managed
not to bump into folks as he careered around the
place like a pinball on speed - that one rarely
comes across in London (more of which later). |
 |
| Pity
‘though about our timing, a quiet Tuesday
night in late September. A few days earlier and
we might have caught Alvin Youngblood Hart, a few
days later and we would have seen Serge’s
beloved Brian Auger’s Oblivion Express (a
sort of Brora of the jazz world, or so it seems).
As it was we had to make the best (after a very
good dinner – of which also more later) of
local band the Velvet
Vipers. |
Jack Velker |
Led
by Vancouver veteran Jack Velker, keyboard player
extraordinaire and available for hire to play at
your corporate dinner parties, or even in your own
kitchen or dining room, the Vipers performed several
sets of largely uninspiring blues and R&B standards.
‘St James’ Infirmary’, ‘Ain’t
she sweet’ (!), ‘Caledonia’ were
mixed together with Dylan (‘All along the
watchtower’) and Boz Scaggs (‘Somebody
loan me a dime’) with whom Velker has frequently
worked. |
To
be frank Jack carried the band - good vocals, great
work on the Yale’s resident Hammond organ
and a confident charisma that made up for his rather
soulless four piece. I’m not going into details,
and I promised not to be cruel about saxophonist
Dominic Conway, for whom the phrase ‘having
a bit of a bad night’ was probably originally
intended. Let’s just say that I broke the
reviewer’s golden first rule, put down my
notebook in despair, and danced the night away.
So the Vipers were good for something.
And that might have been it, blurry memories and
sore calves, had it not been for the fact that we
literally bumped into two thirds of the North
Mississippi Allstars over dinner. They
(very nice young men who certainly knew their way
round a tub of oysters) it transpired were playing
in town on Wednesday. So we changed our plans and
the next night found ourselves (after another very
good dinner) in the plush interior of the city’s
famous Commodore Ballroom. Another fantastic venue
that puts the likes of London’s Shepherd’s
Bush Empire or Astoria (and their owners) to shame.
Back here it’s more often than not push and
shove, beer and swill, crumbling Edwardian grandeur,
Ajax encrusted lines of coke in the filthy toilets
– you get the picture. But the Commodore,
an art-deco temple to popular entertainment built
in 1929, and recently subject to a $3.5 million
refurbishment by its current owners (it’s
tied up with the House of Blues organisation I think),
is stunning interior design, comfortable bars, waitress
service, relaxed seating, and an out of this world
sprung wooden dance floor. Oh yes – and pretty
dammed good acoustics too. And the tickets were
about half the price of what the Whiskyfun expense
account would normally have to bear. London are
you listening ? |
Luther and Cody Dickinson |
The
North Mississippi Allstars are guitarist Luther
Dickinson, drummer (well mostly drummer) Cody Dickinson,
and bassist Chris Chew. The two D boys are both
sons of Jim Dickinson of Memphis’ Ardent Studios.
Chris Chew, it should be observed, is so huge that
he makes a Fender Precision Bass look like a child’s
toy. The band famously emerged on the blues scene
in 2000 with their quite breathtaking album Shake
Hands with Shorty. Since them, ‘though their
live work has been much admired their recordings
have been somewhat patchy (avoid, for example, Polaris)
until the release of the brand new Electric Blue
Watermelon, so new that it’s not available
in Europe yet, though I do have the Photographer’s
autographed copy for safekeeping. |
The
format of their work is simple, though quite mesmerising.
At its core are hypnotic rhythms (perhaps ‘grooves’
might be a better word) drawn from the roots of
the Delta Blues tradition, and great vocal interplays
between Dickenson (Luther) and Chew. The NMAS cite
the recently deceased R L Burnside as a particular
influence; now although he’s probably better
known for his collaborations with the likes of the
Jon Spencer Blues Explosion (“We ARE the Blues
Explosion”), and particularly by Whiskyfun
readers for the recently re-released A Ass Pocket
of Whiskey, you need to go back to his first recordings
(R L Burnside’s Original Recordings) from
1968 to see where these young boys really take their
inspiration from. A moaning repetitive drone, often
built around a single chord, some slide guitar,
scant lyrics, real blues. And on Watermelon some
interesting flashes of rap (or is it hip-hop?) too.
So the NMAS sensibly focussed on songs from their
first and last albums for the two and a half hours
or so that they played for us – which given
that they didn’t come on stage ‘till
11.00pm was quite possibly an hour too long (especially
as we’d already endured two incredibly loud
sets from locals Slammin Jack and She Stole my Beer,
who curiously counted five drummers and not too
much imagination between them) You see their other
trick is that they take these old tunes, like Burnside’s
‘Po black Maddie’, Mississippi Fred
McDowell’s ‘Shake ‘em on down’
or Charley Paton’s ‘Mississippi bo weevil
blues’ and use them as jumping off points
for long, incredibly well structured (but sometimes
just a tad lengthy) improvisations. |
| The
musicianship of the three is quite outstanding,
with Chew often patiently waiting for the two brothers’
excursions to finally find their way back to the
tune. Luther D’s slide guitar is simply on
another level from most other players, his brother’s
drumming ranging from powerhouse bass-pedal rocking
to gentle snare drum rhythms (the introduction to
‘Mean ‘ol wind died down’). And
they showed their knowledge of their rock forebears
with witty references to the likes of Carlos Santana,
the Allman Brothers, Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. To
be honest the only problem was that they were enjoying
themselves so much that they simply didn’t
know when to stop. |
Chris Chew |
But
to have an opportunity to enjoy such virtuoso and
good humoured self-indulgence is a rare thing these
days (especially in a London where gigs normally
end on the dot of 11.00pm), so it’s churlish
to complain.
Thank you Vancouver. Great gigs, great venues, and
such nice people, even the pretty ladies dancing
with hula-hoops, apparently something of a fashion
in these parts. Whiskyfun readers, please buy Shake
Hands with Shorty, and Electric Blue Watermelon
– if you can find them in the stores that
is (yes, you can have the best product in the world
but never overcome poor distribution). And if you
want to explore their Mississippi Delta roots then
take a look at R L Burnside, or even the new album
by T Model Ford (who we saw struggling against the
sterile Barbicanites earlier in the year), Pee-wee
Get my Gun. Why, you can even book Jack Velker for
your next posh dinner party. It’s worth the
price of a bottle of your favourite. -
Nick Morgan (all photos by Kate The Photographer) |
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the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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