I've lost count of how many friends have told me to check out WALKING WOUNDED. This band are well connected for sure, I know a few of my friends had been trying to get me to see them on Friday night so it was a surprise to walk into the Gypsy Hotel on Saturday night to find Walking Wounded onstage as a 4 piece. They are all of a certain age: that means the songs come from experience rather than dreams and coming from the Bayous of Hackney adds to the reality. It was a nice change to see a band with a steel guitar and Accordian as main instruments along with a bass guitar and a drummer just playing a snare and a ride cymbal (correct me if it was a crash and not a ride).
They were nice and tight even if the singer did keep having trouble with his steel guitar, the strap coming undone at one point. They have a good sense of humour too: during their set they did Hackney Central Murder Mile, a song that if its premise is true means I was born on murder Mile! I think they also did Growing Old Disgracefully which I think they all are and they closed with Home Sweet Hackney, a great paean to that most maligned of London boroughs that many of us natives born there end up leaving. A good opening set and I'll have to see them again at some point.
Next on was LALLA MORTE who arrived onstage in a suitcase before escaping, Houdini-style and bringing us her Burlesque black & White silent movie routine with a bit of a seaside theme to it. A nice bit of titillation to whet the appetite for what was to come.
No not DES O'CONNOR who was next on and no it's not THAT Des O'Connor, stupid, but a youngish, very stylish comedian who is also a singer like the other Des was/is. Confused? You needn't be, becuase this guy was very funny indeed and even got us all singing along before finishing his routine by introducing tonight's star turn: The URBAN VOODOO MACHINE.
They came swaying out to the normal theme intro before launching into the Theme From the Urban Voodoo Machine and during the course of the set they varied as ever from a 8 piece to a 12 piece with about 15 different musicians being involved in total.
The first song proper was Cheers For The Tears, about the rumours of Paul Ronnie Angel's death that were of course untrue as he stood before us belting out the tune with the rest of the band whipping up a storm behind him. Then it was time for some Lightning From A Blues Sky that saw Slim giving us his best Professor Longhair on the piano.
Killer Sound was next and it was a bit of a rampage; a pity some of the girls at the front weren't paying attention and busy talking instead of listening and not even being told by Paul to shut up would help them. New song Not With could almost have been about them, it sounds much like the rest of their music which is more than fine by me.
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Rather You Shot Me Down sounded really good, with some great guitar from Nick Marsh and some fine washboard as well. Run For Your Money had a bit of a desperado feel to it and should be backing a Roberto Rodriguez film. In between getting drinks from the audience and more remarks aimed at the talking girls it was time to be Off To Rehab. That is becoming a bit of an anthem for the band but not as much as Go East is a real sing along stomp along: a rock and roll monster of a tune.
The Orphans Lament always brings out the best in them and it was followed by the arrival of the Musical Saw and Cello players from the Tiger Lillies for Heroin Put my Brothers In The Ground. It is far more uplifting than a song with that subject matter ought to be, but then they ramp up the energy and mad drumming antics for High Jeopardy Thing. Tom close, they brought on Lady Ane Angel once more with her Tuba for Goodbye To Another year.
The band seemed a bit reluctant to encore, or was this a bluff? They started with Love song 666 and then went to leave agian before being persuaded to some back, launching into a long Jam that started with Down In A Hole and kept mutating through Baby Please don't Go and into Suzy Q as people changed instruments, drummers rotated and all sorts of stuff happened onstage.
Finally, Jesus is gonna Be Here Soon emerged and morphd into When the Saints Come Marching in. That sounded like they had taken Dr Johns arrangement for it. It changed a couple more times before becoming Ha Ha Ha Ha or whatever that song is called and then it was Tequila time and a bottle of bourbon appeared to be guzzled by the boys before a rousing finale push through That's What I Say. Then they were gone, leaving us all sweating and breathless by another great set, not quite as good as the one W&H were there for at Dingwalls a couple of months ago but still hugely powerful.
There was another Burlesque act on after them whose name I forget I'm afraid. She did a fan dance in a feather outfit. Well what else could you follow that with?
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