Although things are starting to pick up a little it's been a sparse year for live music - until just before Christmas and now this week there are gigs I want to go to four nights in a row! And this is during the week when I have to get up for work at stupid-o-clock every morning. This really is the worst possible time for all the gigs to come at once! So in one week I want to go to see the Warner E. Hodges Band, The Darkness & Massive Wagons, Ginger Wildheart & The Sinners, and Duncan Reid & The Big Heads. In normal times I would have attempted to go to all four gigs on consecutive nights. But these aren't normal times...
The Warner E. Hodges Band originally announced one London gig on their current UK tour - at the Hope & Anchor, but this sold out before I could get a ticket, and it also clashed with the Darkness + Massive Wagons show at Shepherds Bush Empire. Then another gig was added the previous night at the Dublin Castle - a venue I feel is less likely to have a Covid-laden atmosphere as it's not in a confined basement like the Hope & Anchor. So this was good news for me. More good news was that Dead Hombres have been added to the bill.
Ex-Gasoline Queens frontman Nigel has put this new band together, but they sound very different to his old outfit. Gone are the Les Paul and Marshal style sounds and now the sound harks back to the 1950's with Gretch guitars and Fender amps - and it sounds very good.
This is the most authentic sounding old school rock & roll combo I've heard in a long time.
And onto the headliners.
Jason and the Scorchers guitarist
Warner E. Hodges has taken a
big chance in these perilous Covid times by coming over to Plague Island for a tour. Individual gigs and whole tours by other artists have been cancelled left right and centre in the UK this year. Things are made simpler by him having his own UK band when he tours here and in Europe, and they have formed a 'bubble' for this 5 date tour to keep themselves and their audience as safe as possible. It only takes one band or crew member to catch Covid and the whole tour is cancelled. With testing and good planning they seem to have pulled it off.
The
Warner E. Hodges Band always provide a good night out, and tonight is no exception. Mr Hodges is in Christmas mode and sporting suitable headgear. Although he is perceived as a 'Country Rock' artist, with this band the emphasis is very much on the
rock - after all, Warner's favourite band
is AC/DC.
There are less covers in the set than normal - after all, Warner and the band do have a new(ish) studio album
Just Feels Right to promote - it's very good - you should get it. We do as usual get 'Country Roads' (in more rockin' form than by other artists) and a single AC/DC tune in the form of 'Riff Raff'', but unfortunately not the hoped for 'War Pigs' which this band do a
stunning version of - maybe they were saving it for tomorrow night's show at the nearby Hope & Anchor? Still, it was a great night at the Dublin Castle and a fun way to end what has been a less than busy year for live music.
Of the six indoor gigs I've been to in 2021 - every single one has been in Camden.
Oh, and what of the gigs on the following three nights? I didn't go to
any of them in the end. I think the
Ginger & The Sinners show would have been fun (but packed), and
Massive Wagons (who I've already missed once this year) and
The Darkness (who I've not seen for several years now) on the same bill would have been great fun night out. The
Duncan Reid and the Big Heads show was cancelled due to Corona virus risks, and I thought better of going to the other two in the circumstances - with Christmas and family get togethers coming up I though going to gigs several nights in a row would
greatly increase my chances of getting Covid-19 and potentially spreading it around....
