Showing posts with label Brian Downey. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Brian Downey. Show all posts

CD Review: Gary Moore – Live at Bush Hall 2007

CD Review: Gary Moore – Live at Bush Hall 2007
Eagle Records
All Access Rating: B+

Gary Moore - Live at Bush Hall 2007 2014
Peter Green would have loved seeing Gary Moore on this May evening in 2007. Moore was Green's favorite pupil, soaking in all the blues-guitar knowledge he could from the Fleetwood Mac founder and '60s British blues boom architect.

Performing to 400 people in the cozy environs of Bush Hall, all of whom won tickets to the show from Planet Rock Radio, which originally broadcast it, Moore sweated out a rough-and-tumble set that fervently testified to his mastery of the blues. Live at Bush Hall 2007 is the first-ever audio release of that show, and the sound is exquisite, nicely capturing the intimacy of the setting.

Drawing liberally from Close As You Get, the album he'd released just prior to this outing, Moore led a quartet that included his old Thin Lizzy mate, drummer Brian Downey, through smoky supplications like "Trouble At Home," soulful readings of Phil Lynott's "Don't Believe A Word" and "Still Got the Blues" – two deeper cuts from a catalog begging for greater appreciation – and lowdown, junkyard growlers "Hard Times" and a particularly unruly "If The Devil Made Whiskey."

An ebullient cover of Sonny Boy Williams' "Eyesight to the Blind" allows Moore to display his feel for authentic interpretation, something that's even more apparent in the stunning, bare-bones reading of Son House's "Sundown" – Moore's deft slide guitar work, seemingly dug straight from the fertile soil of the Mississippi Delta, on this version is nothing short of brilliant – that brings the curtain down. And when he turns rowdy, as he does on gloriously rambunctious and raw versions of "Walking By Myself" and Chuck Berry's "Thirty Days," Moore doesn't hold anything back.

Throughout Live at Bush Hall 2007, Moore wrings every ounce of emotion out of his instrument when he bends strings to his will and holds sustains as if he's choking a mortal enemy to death, his elegantly wild leads so expressive, so tightly woven and so vibrant, as evidenced by Moore's 4:34 solo "Gary's Blues 1." If only some of the slower songs weren't so dawdling, a minor quibble by the way, Live at Bush Hall 2007 would be absolutely essential. As it is, it's works as a boon companion to Moore's studio legacy. http://www.eagle-rock.com/
– Peter Lindblad

CD Review: Thin Lizzy - Live in London 2011


Thin Lizzy
Live in London 2011
Four Worlds USA
All Access Review: B+
Thin Lizzy- Live in London 2011
In the end it doesn’t really matter how much of Live and Dangerous was actually recorded live, as it will forever be considered the definitive Thin Lizzy concert album. Harnessing the very life force of front man Phil Lynott, that wild Irish artist with the “live free or die” ethos who threw his heart and soul into every lyric he penned, that record had an electricity and a galvanizing spirit to it that made sparks fly. Without the charismatic Lynott leading the charge, having died in 1986, leaving surviving band members to battle over the rights to the Thin Lizzy name, Live in London 2011 cannot possibly hope to win over the hearts and minds of those who feel that a Lizzy without Lynott is, at best, a pale imitation of the original.
And as for any comparisons to Live and Dangerous, the phrase “apples and oranges” comes to mind, especially as the Thin Lizzy of this recording is, for all intents and purposes, little more than a tribute band – even if, as recent press reports have indicated, they do end up making an album of all new material under a different moniker, out of respect for Lynott. For all of its accolades, there’s been a great deal of controversy over what parts of Live and Dangerous were overdubbed, with producer Tony Visconti and guitarist Brian Robertson espousing their own versions of the truth over the years. Live in London 2011, one of the really expansive and sonically impressive Concert Live Series releases from Four Worlds, won’t spark any controversy of that sort, being a complete and unabridged document of a modern-day Thin Lizzy giving a packed London Hammersmith house everything they have in a rousing, workman-like performance that honors the memory of its fallen leader.  
Led by Scott Gorham, who along with Brian Robertson sculpted Thin Lizzy’s signature “twin lead guitar” sound, this version of Lizzy – featuring Brian Downey back on drums, singer Ricky Warwick, Marco Mendoza on bass, longtime keyboardist Darren Wharton, and Def Leppard’s Vivian Campbell on guitar – gallops and slashes its way through the bruising, saber-rattling “Emerald” and the apocalyptic imagery of “Angel of Death,” after barely surviving the frenzied fray of the bruising “Massacre.” Not all fire and brimstone, Live in London 2011 also finds Lizzy mining more melodic – though still gritty and as tough as London’s East End – territory on rough-and-tumble renderings of “Wild One” and “Waiting for an Alibi,” and a more fragile-hearted reading of the bluesy, neon-lit ballad “Still in Love with You.”
Ballads, however, are a rarity on Live in London 2011, with Lizzy intent on riding this horse hard and putting it up wet, as the hard funk treatment given to “Sha La La La” – with Mendoza’s bass sounding particularly rubbery and mean – and “Bad Reputation” indicate. Ballsy and full of venom, the surging “Jailbreak,” with its familiar biting riffs and sure hooks holding you in their clutches, runs at a brisk pace, and the building momentum of “Cowboy Song” is electrifying, that reliable old high-flying guitar solo rocketing to the moon as it always has, leading into a somewhat flaccid “Boys Are Back in Town.”
Occasionally, the energy lags, Warwick – though possessing a commanding voice – hits some flat notes and the mix, while mostly superb, giving each instrument good definition and great power, isn’t always perfect – there are times when some of the guitar solos seem distant and fade into the background. Regardless, a celebratory atmosphere pervades Live in London 2011, as Warwick stops to toast the dear, departed Lynott often, and Gorham and Campbell sync up on dual-guitar weavings that couldn’t be more exquisite, while also exchanging searing, majestic leads that leave sonic brands on your skin. Best of all, Live in London 2011 is one of those concert albums that makes you feel as if you were standing in the frongt row – the in-between song banter coming through loud and clear – during a rollicking, if not entirely flawless, performance, and for those who weren’t there, or who haven’t experienced the new millennium Thin Lizzy for themselves, this might just be a good substitute for the real thing.
-            Peter Lindblad