The Urban Voodoo Machine headed down to South London put on a blues and rock and roll all dayer in the tiny New Cross Inn. Perhaps they won't bother making the trek again as what was otherwise a pretty good gig was marred by some bad crowd behaviour and by an odd atmosphere.We didn't arrive till mid way through so the first band we saw was the John E Visitc Rock n Roll Sound System all the way from St. Paul Bristol. Led by charismatic front man John E Vistic the Rock n Roll Sound System put out some thundering rock and roll tunes, which were arguably the highlight of the entire evening. Mr Vistic's pouting, dancing and general look was like Mick Jagger had jumped into Nick Cave's skin, his performance was a mesmerising as his bands music was electrifying. Here is a band to look out for.
They were followed by long time Urban Voodoo support act the Future Shape of Sound who they share a saxophonist with. There mix of blues and gospel led by a 4 female gospel singers one of whom wears a stunning feathered Rio carnival style head dress really got the crowd going. However the Future Shape of Sound's songs do not quite match the quality of their stage presence which
prevents them from being as good a band as they should be. They did spectacularly conclude on a spoon a solo by the Saxophonist which is not something you see everyday.
The crowd had been perfectly warmed up for the arrival of the main event, but this was not quite the usual Voodoo Machine performance. The crowd, perhaps due to the long day was not as attentive as the lead singer wanted and trouble brewed with one late middle aged lady who standing at the front of the stage kept trying to touch them. She had been something of a nuisance all night and had been stood at the front harrassing John E Vistic as well. It was too everyone's relief that she was eventually thrown out by the bouncers. It turned out that she was actually well known to the band and has been sort of stalking them for years, she had even brought her guitar with her thinking that she was going to be able to play on stage.Weird.
It didn't get much better when during one of their drumming routines where they pretend to put their hats at the end of money someone from the crowd threw a coin and hit the drummer in the face.Now he is a large man and he grabbed a mic and offered for the perpetrator to reveal themselves. No one was forthcoming. The size of the venue also played against them, they are a huge 9 piece band and they were struggling to fit on the tiny stage in the New Cross Inn much to the seeming frustration of the lead singer. Nevertheless the sound in that venue, despite its other shortcomings, is fantastic and meant that it was possible to enjoy all of the eclectic instruments on display from trumpets to accordions and spoons.
The band made themselves available for chatting with crowd afterwards and I learnt that the spoon playing Saxophonist learnt the Spoons as a kid because he 'is a Cockney' and considers himself to be 'a spoon player first Saxophonist second'. The double bassist uses a really cheap Chinese bass which the case cost more than the bass, but replaced the bridge as with a decent bridge on it he can make it into a decent live bass. The accordion player Slim is in fact a pianist and took up the accordion in the 80s and found it 'easy as you only have to use one hand'. He also mentioned that when he started there were only 3 accordion players in all of London so he gets a lot more accordion than piano work!. Finally the drummer Jay talked about their strange drum set up where effectively they have two guys playing one drum kit without a floor bass drum. It is a big part of The Voodoo Machine's unique sound and is possible because the two of them 'love playing together'.
All in all it was a enjoyable show if not quite hitting the heights of their previous shows, the tremendous support acts however made up the difference.
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