Oli Brown & The Mentulls - Sedgefield RnB Club 22/10/11

Things kicked off with The Mentulls who played another dynamite set. This is the 3rd time this year I’ve caught the lads and it was fun to be able to sit and watch all the “first-timers” pick their lower jaws off the floor. Andrew on guitar is the “bluesman”, Nick on drums is the “rocker” and Jamie on keyboards has the “prog” leanings, yet they manage to fuse it into a sound completely their own, the likes of which comes from a time way beyond thier ages. Andrew’s style does lean very toward the Bonamassa and taps into Gary Moore (Still Got The Blues) and Hendrix (Red House), but the guys have a taste for old Tull - I’m going back to “This Was” and “Benefit”, but I’m sure toward the end I even heard “The Nice” being referenced. (Bear in mind, the combined age of these three lads is 50, that nearly 10 less than VATA!)

Icon, I know you’ve already caught them, with VATA, but for anyone who hasn’t, here’s a couple of tasters:-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ib3QhOIjEj4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx6r1OioJxc

On the strength of that, if Oli thought he was going to have an easy “warm-up” gig before his big tour with John Mayall, he got a bit of a surprise and had to dig a bit deeper. And he did, sounding crisp and rested, he launched into a set combining mostly “Heads I Win” material with several well polished new numbers from the up-coming new album including what’s the title-track, “Here I Am”. Oli confirmed what I kind of expected hearing the stuff earlier in the year, Wayne Proctor is sitting in the producer’s chair this time. Can’t really say there was anything different in Oli’s performance since he rocked The Cluny a couple of months ago, other than the new songs; he’s still prefering the Telecaster over the Vantage and I have to agree with Icon’s comment from a while back, he’d be better mixing the two. Outstanding solos from Wayne and Ron justified the recent "Best Band" and "Drummer" Blues awards.

Encore time, and Oli came out with the first live airing of another new song, “Devil In Me”, and it was a cracker. Then Andrew was called back on stage to finish the night with a jam on Oli’s “Stone Cold (Roxanne)”, however the Guisborough Gremlins must have arrived as Andrew’s amp refused to emit a sound. However, in the traditions of “make do and mend” and blues community cameradery, Oli plugged the lad into his amp and let him play while he strummed a soundless rhythm while belting the vocals. Mid way through the bridge, they did a quick swapping of leads so Oli could set some licks, before swapping back again. Okay, as a “jam” it wasn’t fully satisfactory, but stuff happens. If you want faultless, clincial "perfection", stop in on a Saturday night and watch X-Factor: this is how music should be, live and unpredictable.

Turn out was venue capacity - not bad going with Wilko Johnson playing 10 miles away in Shildon and Wishbone Ash in Newcastle. Sedgefield is building a good reputation for itself, despite only being able to host gigs on alternate months. (Next up 24 Pecos and Tom Attah in December)

Mike