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With the onset of February we are getting a little busier. 2nd, Protest The Hero, 6th Del Amitri, 9th Molly Hatchet, 14th Monster Magnet, 15th Dream Theater, 19th, Sons Of Icarus, 20th Skyclad, 25th Soulfly, 26th Cadillac Three

And maybe a couple more to be added.

Sunday 5 May 2013

CHUCK PROPHET AND THE MISSION EXPRESS, The Dreaming Spires @Hare and Hounds, Moseley 30/4/13


A few years ago there was a regular Americana night just up the road from the venue from where tonight’s gig is being held. RTM used to go there a lot in order to watch something new and different. We saw bands like the Cash Brothers and Jolene who came over from America to play a rocky sort of country music and we had some good night’s there.

We found ourselves thinking of those times while watching The Dreaming Spires. Ok, so the band is from Oxford and not across the pond, but the music would have fitted in well. The three piece feature two vocalists hamonising and are a very pleasant way to spend half an hour. “Everything All The Time” is a lot catchier than its title suggests, and while “Sin City” might put you in mind of Motley Crue it sounds nothing like them. They also do a neat line in quirky, with “Not Every Song From The 60s is a Classic” lives up to its fine name. Unexpectedly good.

Former Green on Red frontman Chuck Prophet has re-invented himself as a fine singer-songwriter and is one of those prolific people that rather like RTM favourite Dan Baird, you suspect lives to make and play music. At the beginning of this show though, he very nearly doesn’t play anything at all. After his cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Dollar Bill Blues” his guitar cuts out causing a lengthy delay while things are fixed. If this creates a stop-start feel, Prophet and his band are soon into their collective stride with “Credit” and “Doubter Out Of Jesus,” both of which are excellent.

Prophet and The Mission Express are in town for the first time in years to promote last year’s brilliant “Temple Beautiful” album, its Stonsey title track is the perfect call and response number, except for one thing, it contains the ridiculous lyric, “she got so excited/Manchester United” and such things don’t go well in these parts. No matter, though as the “…Beautiful” record is mined again for “Who Shot John” with its languid Dylan type feel and “The Left Hand And The Right Hand” which tells the tale of brothers that argue.

If this gig was, for large parts, excellent, it wasn’t uniformly so. The sound problems which affected the start return, which is coupled with the presence of Brummie music stalwart Dave Cusworth in a rather, shall we say, tired and emotional state. After initially greeting him warmly, Prophet visibly tires of the antics and says “Dave, I got it from here, things can get pretty ugly pretty fast.”

Indeed, that tetchiness seems to translate into the rest of the set, and Prophet does seem slightly annoyed at the response from the crowd, telling us “The contract says I have to play, in return you could look like you are enjoying it.” Things reach their low point in set closer “You Did” which is rather self-angrandising at the best of times, but the crowd is meant to join in. Most don’t and Prophet looks none too pleased.

No matter, he is soon back for “Tulane” by Chuck Berry, before ending with “Eight Miles Low” by Cheap Trick which segues into a Doctor Feelgood song which is dedicated to Wilko Johnson.

This was a good, if overlong show, but one which you suspect that Chuck Prophet won’t remember too fondly, as sound problems and a rather lacklustre, irritable atmosphere stopped it from being totally memorable. 

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