It may have been 20 years since Chuck Prophet last played a
venue in Birmingham but his blistering performance this evening set out to
relieve two decades of frustration for his dedicated fans and captivate a
legion of new followers. Right from the off, Chuck and his three piece Mission
Express band was determine to rock the Hare and Hounds to its historic
foundations and after overcoming the hiccup of a little technical difficulty
straight after the opening Townes Van Zandt cover ‘Dollar Bill Blues’, the next two hours was pure raucous bliss. Only
after the barnstorming encore medley of Chuck Berry’s ‘Tulane’ and Dr Feelgood’s ‘She
Does It Right’ , a Wilko Johnson tribute, which sandwiched Chuck’s new song ‘I Call Your Name’, were those present able to get their breath
back.
It probably gives Chuck a little injustice to recount three
covers in the opening paragraph of this review as he is the composer of many
fine songs over the years and there is an excellent album released last year which
contained several memorable songs on the evening. TEMPLE BEAUTIFUL was my
introduction to the world of Chuck Prophet and it was with the quality title
track that he really started to engage with the healthily turned out midweek
Birmingham audience. ‘Who Shot John’
and ‘The Left Hand and Right Hand’
also represented this album in the set list, although it was two songs based on
San Francisco iconic figures that resonated most with me. As a baseball fan, I
have been intrigued with Chuck’s ode to the legend duly named in ‘Willie Mays is up at Bat’ and the
fantastic live version played tonight easily rivalled some of his back
catalogue classics. ‘White Knight Big
City’ also came across well and was introduced as a tribute to the
legendary Bay area equality activist Harvey Milk.
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| Steph and Chuck. Not taken at gig. |
However the evening wasn’t just about the newer material as
Chuck delved into almost half a dozen of his past albums to deliver classics
such as ‘Summertime Thing’ from NO
OTHER LOVE, even further back to 1997 for ‘Credit’
from HOMEMADE BLOOD and the exceptional ‘You
Did’ with the demanded audience participation. This crowd pleaser closed
the main set by which time there was no stopping the momentum of Chuck with his
outstanding guitar playing, wry humour and charismatic front of band persona.
The stage presence was increased when Chuck called up a guy from Birmingham
Americana/indie band Gas Food Lodging to sing backing vocals on this pre-encore number.
At this stage it seems appropriate to introduce the current
line up serving the Mission Express. In true rock n’ roll tradition, dramatic
introductions led us to meet Vicente Rodriguez from San Antonio, Texas on drums,
Kevin White on bass from Massachusetts and multi guitarist James Deparado, a
fellow Californian of Chuck, on lead. Last but not least the force behind
Chuck was revealed to be keyboard player and long time partner Stephanie Finch who showed
her versatile talent by stepping forward to play acoustic guitar and singing ‘All is Forgiven’. An almost country
moment amongst the relentless but thrilling onslaught of pure Americana rock n’
roll. Stephie, as she is known, then remained
up front to sing a duet of ‘Castro
Halloween’ whilst sharing Chuck’s more conventional of the two mics used
during the evening. The other was periodically used for a dramatic loud haler
echo effect. It goes without saying that the band was superb and gave Chuck the
support he needed to bring out the live true quality of his songs.
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| Joe and Robin from The Dreaming Spires |
The evening had got off to an impressive start with a
brilliant support slot from Oxford based Americana/indie outfit The Dreaming
Spires who used their half hour set to showcase several songs from their fabulous
debut album BROTHERS IN BROOKLYN. Of these, the standout from my point of view
is their observations on Californian Classic Gold Radio in ‘Not Every Song from the Sixties is a Classic’,
while their self penned ‘Singing Sin City’
saw the Flying Burritos majestic song of almost the same name sampled alongside
it. To prepare us for Chuck Prophet, the band spearheaded by the Bennett
brothers, Joe and Robin, also played their version of his song ‘No Other Love’. The Dreaming Spires are
definitely a band to look out for and are likely to be featured here more
prominently in the future.
So the wait for many to catch Chuck Prophet live in
Birmingham was over and a special word of thanks must go to Nottingham based promoters
Cosmic American who hosted this brave venture 50 miles down the M42. For those
just getting into Chuck, the statement has to be said better late than never. However as a baseball and Americana fan, the ultimate memory is of Chuck singing
the immortal line ‘three on, two out, under lights’ as well as having the
satisfaction of knowing who Willie Mays is.