Spending a Saturday night in King Tuts? Not something that a Bluesbunny often does, that's for sure. A weekend is special and it just seems wrong to drink your Guinness from a plastic glass (even if it is Guinness branded plastic glass!) at such a time. However, there are visitors from Australia - Gotye and Clare Bowditch - and local boy John Alexander on stage tonight.
John Alexander proved to be something of a surprise. Well, perhaps surprise is the wrong word. Incongruous might be a better one. You can't see the stage from the bar at King Tuts (and that is always a Bluesbunny's first stop…). He just didn't look like he sounded. The John Martyn influence is evident his song writing and deft guitar playing but his voice sounded like his natural home would be fronting the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. He looked so ordinary on stage but that voice is far from ordinary.
One woman and a guitar. Not an unusual site these days and indeed Clare Bowditch did start her set as one woman and her electric guitar. The she progressed to playing a teapot. If I had not seen it with my own eyes… It has to be said that my enjoyment of her quirky songs and inter song stories was hampered by the poor sound but her fans right at the front of the stage - presumably they could hear the monitor mix? - loved every minute of it.
One man and a laptop. Normally seeing technology so obviously displayed on stage would get this Bluesbunny heading for the door. Then again, one man might need some technological assistance to bring his musical ideas to fruition. Especially if he goes by the name of Gotye. There was no shortage of percussion and keyboards on stage as this buoyant performer leapt around playing this and hitting that. Perhaps the best thing about him is that his music is far from being sterile or mechanical. The rhythms of the world swirled round the room as the audience fell under the spell of his offbeat musical charm. A righteous amount of applause, and well deserved it was too, greeted the end of his set. Plenty of memorable melodies to hum on the way home too.