There are three elements that make up a really good covers band:
1. Good musicians with a good vocalist(s).
2. A good, consistent set list, not simply covering what many others do.
3. A good and knowledgable sound engineer called Mike.
It was a very hot and extremely busy Saturday night and it’s very understandable why there were quite a few local musicians present at The Kings, they had come to see one of the region’s premier rock bands performing in one of their favourite venues, so what did we get?
Two sets over nearly 3 hours with in excess of 30 tracks including such classics as “Brown Sugar”, “Angel Of Harlem”, “Down Down”, “Walk This Way” “Know Your Enemy”, “The Middle”, and that was just in the first set!
The second set was even better with “Tie Your Mother Down”, “Midnight Hour”, “Everybody Needs Somebody”, a tremendous “Sanctuary”, a very surprising “Hungry Like The Wolf”, a couple of storming punk tracks, “Pretty Vacant” and “Anarchy In The UK”, a very welcome Velvet Revolver’s “Slither”, Metallica’s classic “Enter The Sandman” followed up by “Ace Of Spades” and a great “Gay Bar”. Needless to say the very busy bar was not going to let Feedback leave without a few encores which included an excellent Rock n Roll medley, “A Whole Lotta Rosie” and finishing the night, as usual, almost the entire bar was jumping up and down to “Nellie The Elephant”.
The only bad news of the night was that guitartist Chris is having to leave the band for a while owing to Repetitive Strain Injury on his fret hand. Please check the 2010 and 2011 “What’s On” for their undoubted return.
Regulars readers will know that this is one of my favourite bands and, as usual, The Back Street Blues Band didn’t fail to impress with their great selection of classic rock and blues covers with two sets lasting nearly 3 hours including Cream’s “Sunshine Of Your Love”, Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” plus “Bye Bye Johnny”, The Rolling Stones “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”, Free’s “Wishing Well” and even a Beatles track! Naturally there was some Rory Gallagher, Led Zeppelin, Freddie King, Jimi Hendrix and the all-time classic of Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads”.
The ever-faithful rock ‘n’ rollers danced the night away keeping the band busy and we even had a birthday celebration with the party-goers up on stage for Sir Mack Rice’s “Mustang Sally”, alas all good things have to come to an end but what a finish, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Sweet Home Alabama” finished it off perfectly. The band won’t be back again until next year most probably for the Ludafest Rock N Blue weekend.
A busy Friday night bar welcomed the return of the multi-talented blues/jazz/pop, and now also Motown inspired, Vanilla Smooth with the usual couple of sets featuring some 26 well-known tracks. They began will an all-time classic first recorded in 1954 by Kaye Ballard and known originally as “In Other Words” but after a few years became better known as “Fly Me To The Moon”! This was followed up by “Crawling Up A Hill”, “Smooth Operator”, “Moondance”, “Street Life”, “Nobody Knows You” and to finish their first set the multi-recorded “Let There Be Love”.
The second set commenced with “Yardbird Suite” and an excellent Jack, ooops, “Mack The Knife” but then my favourite of the night, and I have no idea what it was called, however it was a superb jazz fusion instrumental the quality of which I doubt has been heard in Louth before. With Sylv back on stage a Motown set ensued with “My Guy”, “I Can’t Help Myself”, and “Dancing In The Street” and then one of her favourite tracks from Amy Winehouse, “Back To Black”. To finish the night, and Vanilla Smooth is the only live band I have ever seen do this, a fabulous fusion of Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars” and The Police’s “Every Breath You Take”. Hopefully the band will be back over the Xmas period.
Unfortunately no set list was made available therefore a report cannot be made.
The last time Ignition was at The Kings it was a hot Summer’s night. They must have bottled some of it up since it was extremely hot for them again for their two sets over nearly three hours including the usual half-time break.
In their first set were several classic tracks including “Dakota”, “Use Somebody”, “Feel Like Makin’ Love” and the huge 1968 Rolling Stones number “Jumpin’ Jack Flash”. Considering this is The Stones’ most frequently played concert track, surprisingly few bands ever cover it! The second set had some Bon Jovi, ZZ Top and Hendrix and included, of course, the obligatory song of the past year or so, the Kings of Leon’s “Sex On Fire”. “Buck Rogers” and “Vertigo” took us towards the evening’s end of three encores terminating with a great “All Right Now” from Free.
Ignition are a very good band with two excellent singers, always a bonus, however for me the instruments sound needed turning up a tad since it didn’t travel all the way down the bar for some of the more significant riffs etc, however it certainly didn’t detract from their performance. I have no doubt Ignition will be back again however no date as yet has been set.