Drove down to Birmingham last night to have dinner with my daughter and her new husband at a Latin joint called Luna. Pretty tasty. Then around the corner at a club called Saturn to hear Samantha Fish out on tour to promote her new album "Faster." Which it is!
Stood with a crowd of mostly middle-age+ white people who may have been expecting the more bluesy Samantha of former days. What they got instead was pretty much straight-ahead rock 'n' roll, played by a pared down band of bass, drums, keyboard, and, of course, Fish's flashy guitar, sans horns. Which, surprisingly, they didn't seem to mind. I think because Fish is such an exuberant performer who manages to throw herself into whatever she plays with increasing power, precision, and professionalism. And, of course, since rock is so rooted in the blues, you hear it in whatever she sings. Regardless, the audience ate it up. One gray-haired guy behind me yelling at her, "I think I love you!" despite his female partner's cold look of displeasure.
There were only a couple of glitches in the show, to be expected as Fish quickly transitioned from one tune to the next while changing guitars, keys, and tempos, all in a matter of seconds.
One note of caution, if you go, show up about an hour late to avoid the opening act, if it's a guitarist named Django, who played last night with a booming sound machine, sort of like guitar karaoke, and who apparently never heard of the dictum "less is more." As my wife was apt to quip about these showoff guitar slingers: "I do believe that boy is a bit too much in love with that there guitar."
Stood with a crowd of mostly middle-age+ white people who may have been expecting the more bluesy Samantha of former days. What they got instead was pretty much straight-ahead rock 'n' roll, played by a pared down band of bass, drums, keyboard, and, of course, Fish's flashy guitar, sans horns. Which, surprisingly, they didn't seem to mind. I think because Fish is such an exuberant performer who manages to throw herself into whatever she plays with increasing power, precision, and professionalism. And, of course, since rock is so rooted in the blues, you hear it in whatever she sings. Regardless, the audience ate it up. One gray-haired guy behind me yelling at her, "I think I love you!" despite his female partner's cold look of displeasure.
There were only a couple of glitches in the show, to be expected as Fish quickly transitioned from one tune to the next while changing guitars, keys, and tempos, all in a matter of seconds.
One note of caution, if you go, show up about an hour late to avoid the opening act, if it's a guitarist named Django, who played last night with a booming sound machine, sort of like guitar karaoke, and who apparently never heard of the dictum "less is more." As my wife was apt to quip about these showoff guitar slingers: "I do believe that boy is a bit too much in love with that there guitar."
RSS Feed
