With a change of venue from The Riverside to The Think Tank’s more intimate setting, Ginger Wildheart’s return to Geordie land with new band The Sinners was set to be a highlight of my month. With the release of the bands self titled debut album (read our review here) plenty of hardcore Wildheart fans turned up on the cold Wednesday night where “Even the Thugs have a day off” to see the local lad perform.
Two support acts on the bill, Boss Caine and The John Street Revival were perfectly set to build up the night. Boss Caine kicked things off with his solo man show of country-tinged rock. With his stripped back acoustic version of his songs, Daniel Lucas captivated the small early crowd with his catchy rhythmic guitar playing, interesting chord changes and lyrical storytelling. One song was described as more of a conversation than a song, this is a man meant to be writing songs. It was the mixture of his powerful voice, guitar playing and the fact he was an absolute gentleman after a quick word after his set, that had me heading over to his Bandcamp.
Next up is the beard fest that is The John Street Revival band. With three out of the 5 members supporting some impressive facial hair, they carried on the Americana theme started by Caine’s folky campfire storytelling. A quiet no-nonsense band, they let the music do the talking and really got into their stride after the first couple of tracks that flowed out of them to a receptive audience. The tasty guitar licks and rock beats certainly were a winner with the audience, many getting into the bands groove. Their good old country feeling and the singers velvet vocals interwoven with bursts of smooth sax playing was a pleasure to witness.
The big moment had arrived and after a rather speedy set up, Wildheart and the Sinners hit the stage with a quiet confidence and comfortable ease. The night would see the two front men, Wildheart and Neil Ivison, bring their comedy double act in between the songs. The crowd were hugely receptive and the banter between band and audience was flowing nicely with the whole room glowing from a feel good vibe. Something that the music echoed in particular the singles Wasted Time and Always, Lately and Footprints In The Sand hitting the spot. The band mixed in a number of new songs that will feature on the bands second album, release date unknown at the time of writing.
The double act didn’t stop with just the comedy, Ivison and Wildheart are a perfect guitar rock duo and they look and sound as if they have been playing together for years. Trading licks as their playing slotted into each other all the while pulling out various rock guitar stances. Even though one of the jokes of the night is Ginger having the bigger name on the tour poster this isn’t his new solo band it’s a full band of equals. With the songwriting duties falling on the whole band.
The change of venue worked in the favour and saw the night as a relaxed celebration of music, Wildheart mentioned several times how grateful he was for people to be still supporting music and turning up to gigs. The band celebrated music themselves with covers of The Georgia Satellites Six Years Gone, Status Quo Dirty Water, Little Feets Willin’ and Broken Down Angel by the best band out of Dunfermline Nazareth.
An ecore was conducted onstage as Ivison commented that the band couldn’t be bothered actually leaving. An acoustic was brought out for Wildheart for the albums drinking track Code Of The Road with calls for a whisky to start off. Ending on the folky rocker Breakout, a strict curfew meant the night finished well before the band or the crowd wanted. In fact the band looked like they could carry on for another hour or two.
A warm fuzzy night of great music
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