Venue:
University of London Union
Date: 17/11/2017
I think I have probably seen Chuck Prophet, either fronting his own band or as part of Green On Red, more than any other artist. I estimate all the time I’ve spent standing in front of stages watching, listening to and enjoying Chuck’s playing and singing amounts to about two days of my life. (I realise this is as naught compared to dedicated Springsteen followers or Deadheads who probably can count weeks of their existence spent in front of their favourites, but it is a significant time for me).
What that means is I’ve seen performances of varying intensity and enjoyment over the years. There is a group of friends I go to CP gigs with, and we’ve been in agreement that his last couple of London gigs have been rather lacklustre. When I was sorting out the tickets for this gig, people were actually questioning whether we wanted to go.
That won’t happen next time because this was a fully energised, fun-loving, concentrated, dedicated, brilliant performance.
The band came out, started up then Chuck bounded out. A huge grin on his face. They play an intro, which something of an overture – I definitely heard a snatch of Willie Mays in there – which segues into Bobby Fuller Died For Your Sins.
It’s a set dominated by the last three albums – Temple Beautiful, Night Surfer and Bobby Fuller…with a few older songs in the mix.
You Did comes quite early in the set. In recent years it tends to be the set climax. It’s a cracking version, but Chuck continues to play it as his piece de resistance rather than entering, as has happened in the past, a guitar duel with co-guitarist James dePrato.
James gets a number of chances to shine, none more so than during Summertime Thing, when he unleashes a blistering slide solo. He’s on top form and the rest of the Mission Express are too. Kevin White and Vicente Rodriguez are as tight a rhythm section as any operating while on synth, holding it all together, keeping the boys in line is Stephanie Finch.
This was as good a Chuck Prophet and Mission Express experience as I’ve had. He was back, rocking the house; the band were tight and brilliant and we in the audience did our best to let them know how good they were. I’ll even applaud the participation of us in the audience doing the Woah Oh Oh Oh, Oh Oh Ohs on Willie Mays Is Up At Bat. Man we were hot.
A great gig. Next time around no one will be questioning whether we want to go and I’ll start racking up the hours towards three whole days watching Chuck.
The audience:
Not too many students in, which is a shame as a lot of us aren’t getting any younger
It made me think..
When you know someone is good, on nights like this your perseverance can be rewarded.
I won’t catch Chuck this time round but caught him in Birmingham earlier this year when he was, and the Band, and the audience, quite exhilarating. One of the best performers, performing great performances today.
As a matter of interest @Carl were curse of Lono the support? In Brum they were and were excellent- their album will be on my end of year list.
They were and based on your earlier commendation I made sure we got there in good time to see them.
I liked them, but didn’t love them enough to want to buy their album from the merch table. I think that was the consensus among my friends.
Horses for courses perhaps.
Most people I know were complimentary about Tift Merritts recent support of Jason Isbell – I thought she was okay for a couple of numbers until she strapped on the electric guitar and then I thought she was dire.
Chuck still a top live artist though.