£1.80 for a pint of Guinness? What madness is this? I have surely died and gone to heaven! Fortunately not as Bluesbunny was actually in the basement of the State Bar in Glasgow and they must be selling the cheapest Guinness in town. However there was some real madness in the room tonight as keeping the Bluesbunny company were Lee Patterson and Dave Arcari.
Downstairs at the State Bar is a compact venue and tonight it seemed way too small for these two rather deranged musicians. They did it alone and they did it together but most of all they just did it. What did they do, I hear you ask? They both delivered firebrand performances, that's what they did.
.Lee Patterson assaulted us with guitar and washboard in a lively performance bursting with nervous energy. "Your Close Friend" spit, snarled and testified like an old delta blues singer as he reflected - perhaps too polite a term? - on watching your own back. Not kidding about the washboard either as he accompanied himself whilst battering the living daylights out of it. He took the rock 'n' roll route through "Who's Yir Daddy?" before traversing America in "Gotta Roll". There are some right good lyrics in there too so it paid to stay sharp and not get swept away in the sweat soaked madness that he brought to the room. The man actually played his acoustic guitar with a bow! That kind of behaviour is straight out of the deranged playbook.
Talking of deranged, there was also the matter of Dave Arcari. Well known for his full on performances, he sank the boot right in tonight. He had no option really or Lee Patterson would have shown him up. That shiny National guitar really got punished as the Arcari train pulled out of the station and got up a head of steam. "Dreamt I Was 100" - a personal favourite - made it very clear that he was about as far from the "one man and his guitar" that is so common in Glasgow as you can get. Who else would stare wild eyed around the room and announce that there was not enough whisky being drunk? Announcing that "Close to the Edge" was for "…the line dancing b*stards amongst you" kind of made it clear that white cowboy boots would never be acceptable footwear and he just might tip over the edge if he saw them and do something rash. As a seasoned practitioner of raw edged blues tied up with a ferocious stage presence, he is hard to beat.
Then the two good gentlemen got together and rattled through a couple of chaotic numbers before calling it a night. Right at the end, Big Dave Arcari in his trademark Ramones shirt gave the much smaller Lee Patterson - holding a bottle of Bud in each hand - a big bear hug. They looked like they had enjoyed themselves and so did the audience. Better pour me another whisky 'cos the bottle ain't empty!