Have a look
at the cover of Bob Dylan’s first album, then have a look at Samuel Taylor. It
will soon become clear where his influences lie. The opening line on his
website says he is “armed with an acoustic guitar and a mouth organ” and will “treat
the audience to one picky folk number after another.” As a general summation of
his talents you will not find a better one. A series of pleasant songs and a
nice line in self-deprecation (he claims his mum put his name on his guitar
case so he didn’t forget who he was) he leaves the stage after singing “Waiting
For Nothing” and does so with plenty more friends than he entered it with.
Not for
nothing, you suspect, does the Jack White fronted The Dead Weather play after
Black Dollar Bills are finished. The four piece no doubt have designs to play a
similar type of heavy blues. At this stage, though, they are nowhere near the
sound in their heads. The vocals don’t fit the songs and they lack the sort of
charm of the other support. By the end of their half an hour they look like
they would rather be anywhere else. Not an evening they will treasure.
For a band
with one EP out the rise of The Temperance Movement has been quite astonishing.
This show (albeit in the smaller room at the Hare and Hounds) is sold out. RTM
was in Nottingham last week and their gig there was too. They are also pretty
high up the bill at the Steelhouse classic rock festival in the summer and receiving
rave reviews everywhere.
And here is
the really astonishing news. They totally deserve the praise. If you have heard
their “Pride” EP then you know how good they are. They are that band. The one
where someone says something like “they sound like The Black Crowes playing
Free songs” and they actually do.
Most of the
EP is played. “Ain’t No Telling” and “Only Friend” sound even better in this
setting, while they also dip into the new LP – apparently out in September –
for “Smouldering,” which happily does exactly what the title says, amongst
others during the course of an incredible hour long set.
So what
makes them so good? Well there are few rock bands who can both rock hard and
then use the lap steel, sometimes in the same song. There are even fewer who
can pull off such stunning slide guitar that Luke Potashnick manages. But
honestly, their trump card is their singer Phil Campbell, a singer-songwriter
from Scotland, who might dance likew your drunk uncle at a wedding, but when he
opens his mouth something very special happens. At one point they turn the mics
off for “Chinese Laterns” and it is like watching a brilliant busker play your
living room.
Not
original, but not trying to be, The Temperance Movement, are as good as The
Answer were when you first heard “Rise” or Rival Sons were when you came across
“Pressure and Time.”
A quite
brilliant concert, the band already have enough star quality to play an encore
even in a venue this size, coming out of the landing at the top of the stairs,
to play “Serenity.” They do so with the confidence of a band that knows they
will never play a venue this size again – unless they want to do a warm up
before their sell-out UK tour of arenas in 10 years. Trust me, The Temperance
Movement are that good. Get on board now.
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