Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam in Glasgow

Well sorry if this is yet another Davy Knowles thread, but based on last night's show I think he is certainly worth it! 

I arrived at the venue King Tuts Wah Wah Hut around 8pm, pleased to see that the main public bar was busy. There was a slight disappointment when I saw the show times and realised Davy was the third of three acts and his performancce would be between 10.15 and 11.15 (only one hour!).

Tom, Leo and their friends arrived shortly afterwards and we watched the two support acts. Interestingly I spoke to an older guy who for a while who asked me if I'd seen Davy before, my reply was I don't think anyone in Scotland has seen him before. I was surprised when his reply was, I have! He'd been on holiday in the USA in Santa Fe, seen the band advertised and decided to see them. He promised me Davy would put on a great show, but I did know that already.

Finally 5 minutes ahead of schedule Davy and the band made it to the stage and from the crowd reaction it was clear the vast majority had come to see Davy rather than the lukewarm local support artists.

Pleasingly the band started with Tear Down The Walls, which to be always seemed the natural opener. The band were a three piece and clearly they were relishing the performance. Davy's guitarplaying was clean and with certainly more fire than on the new album, PK was jumping about, narrowly swinging his bass head near to the low ceiling and on drums, Steve's smiles told their own story. I'm not sure how the reaction was in Germany, but there were around 200 people to see them here from distances as far as Newcastle and Aberdeen. Davy spoke about how he'd never been to Scotland before, he'd only seen the coastline - this made me think as it is the south west of Scotland from which I come, so he was almost certainly looking in the direction of my home town. Riverbed was next and again, it just sounds so much more vibrant in a live setting than on the album, before the title track Coming Up for Air. Some of the melodic work during this song was superb and indeed a taster for what was to come as Davy made reference to Warren Haynes before a beautiful version of Govt Mule's Worried Down With The Blues. Stunning as my learned friend commented afterwards. Davy was passed fresh cup of tea by Evan, and when asked did explain it was only tea. As he sipped PK was already playing a familiar bassline, we were Coming Home. On of Back Door Slam’s most familiar songs, it was interesting to detect a slight change in tempo, it started slower, then built up place before some mellow moments in the middle of the song. Davy’s clever use of dynamics and feedback was a notable element to the show. His vocals were as good as ever. Messing With The Kid was to follow with all the excitement and soloing of the great version by Rory Gallagher. The band’s original take of Almost Cut My Hair was played, before the band aired a new song for the first time which was called ‘Catch The Moon’, it had an upbeat funky guitar driven riff. Davy spoke about Peter Frampton before the band played Keep On Searching. Time was racing by, and as a closer to 65 minutes of great music was a storming version of You Don’t Love Me, which Davy first heard recorded by John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers with a young Peter Green on guitar. The similarities with Green do not end there. I was very impressed with Davy’s performance and I’d advise anyone pondering whether to see one of his forthcoming shows to go and see him.

I waited until most of the meet and greet crowd has passed before approaching Davy. As mentioned elsewhere I just had an interview with Davy published in Blues Matters magazine, so I provided him with two copies. He recalled the conversation very well, and the location, Lake Tahoe! We spoke for a few minutes. The overall impression was delight; he told me it has taken them a long time to establish crowds of this size in the USA and was bowled over by the response. Around half the crowd has stopped at the CD stand. I got my copy of the original Gaiety Theatre DVD from 2006 signed and as typical posed with Davy for a photo only for Evan to tell me that my camera was giving a notification to change the battery. Evan kindly took a photo on his camera and handed me his business card, so I will get a picture after all! Before departing I did tell them that there would be a good number of people I knew at the next few shows!

So a great night, I drove back the 60 minutes to Edinburgh with a broad smile on my face. Enjoy your time as much as I did!