Angels have
been killing themselves
In one of the early scenes of Kevin Smith’s fantastic
film Dogma the heroine Bethany asks the voice of God “What's he like?” The Melatron
replies “God? Lonely. But funny. He's got a great
sense of humour. Take sex for example. There's nothing funnier than the
ridiculous faces you people make mid-coitus.” “Sex is a joke in heaven?”
enquires Bethany. “The way I understand it, it's
mostly a joke down here, too” replies the voice of God!!
During
Dan Patlansky’s brilliant set, a real master class in blues-rock guitar
playing, the angels must have been killing themselves laughing, as with each
bent note he contorted his face! Perhaps the blues guitarist mid-chord was
God’s prototype for the lover mid-coitus! Maybe this explains why even the
ugliest guitar player gets the girl before the rest of the male population – or
probably closer to the truth why so many of us (the male population) attempt to
master the instrument!!!!
But what
is it about blues guitarists that makes them so prone to such weird facial
expressions during a solo? Let’s be clear Dan Patlansky is not the worst
offender – will anyone ever beat Robin Trower, who is still delighting and
slightly disturbing blues audiences at 70 with his strange pouting!!
The
grotesque macho stance of the longhaired Heavy Metal Axeman complete with outstretched
arm raised high in clenched fist and tongue wagging does not come close. The seated
balladeer’s closed eyes and slowly swaying head is not half as stupid! The
pogoing Punk is perfectly palatable, even the arched back or bent low guitarist
is acceptable, but the distorted face of the blues guitarist unnerves me!
Check it out….
Don’t let
this put you off. If you get the chance go and see Dan Patlansky – GO. The
angels maybe laughing but this was a seriously good gig. Master of instrument
and genre, he quite simply silenced the mainly middle aged male audience (who must
have seen every blues guitarist to emerge in the last 30 years) as suddenly
from a room full of sound he continued the solo at a whisper; not a voice was
heard, so enthralled were this experienced audience.
He is a lion-tamer who has
a roaring, ferocious and vicious beast which he holds on the edge until the
song demands acquiescence, and the animal is submissive at a simple slide of
his fingers.
He let
his guitar do most of the talking but any introduction to a song was concluded
with the phrase ‘Check it out’.
The week before I had listened to the band that
won best Welsh Album of 2014 and the only conclusion I could come to was that there
couldn’t have been much competition. So I was a little apprehensive when this
gig was advertised as ‘Dan Patlansky – Winner of World’s Best Blues-Rock Album
2014’! He promised to play it all and I’m glad he did and I’m glad I checked it
out.
Who needs a right
hand anyway….
As the set came to an end – Patlansky casually
wandered over to his amp and turned it up as a roadie removed his mic and stand
and we were treated to an instrumental virtuoso Voodoo Child cover – a large
majority of which was played one-handed. It was an amazing performance – at
times you had to remind yourself to breathe as you hung on every note. Not too
far from me one member of the audience fainted. I knew it had been good, but at least I had
remembered to breathe!
Patlansky finished with his tamed lion of a Strat
dangling from the bottom e-string under his complete control and the crowd
screaming for more…
…and in heaven the angels stopped laughing and joined
with the crowd to demand an encore…
Gig: 6 of 50
Date of Gig: Mon 27th April 2015
Venue
Borderline, London
Artists
Tristan Mackay
Dan Patlansky
Running total of artists seen 19
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