SEASICK STEVE - HAMMERSMITH APOLLO, LONDON, 14TH APRIL 2015 (LIVE)

It’s taken me just over a week to finally sit down and piece together my write up of this gig, but shit don’t hate i’ve been busy with life and stuff you know how it is. On the beautiful sunny day that was Tuesday 14th April, I managed to pry myself away from the library for an evening of dog house blues at Hammersmith Apollo, the wonderment bestowed upon me was none other than the man himself Seasick Steve. Let me just take this opportunity before we get started to say what an absolute inspiration this man is, 73 years of age and he rocks harder than a 13 yer old who just got his first guitar. Not to mention he's also a keen surfer, where does he get the energy?! Anyway this was the second time in a month I had visited the Apollo after seeing Placebo in March, I've become a regular. Once again I went with the trusty old rents who met me in the Spoons opposite Hammersmith station pre gig to quench our thirsts’ with the finest lager/ale money has to buy. Several of those fine beverages and a few steak and chips later we made our way to the absolutely rammed venue, it honestly felt like double the crowd in comparison to Placebo. Nevertheless it was packed with all kinds of people; all ages and sizes which is fantastic to see. A room full of people that wouldn’t give eachother the time of day on a bus having a good old hoedown together on a Tuesday evening, bizarre really isn’t it? Seasick Steve graced the stage around 9:15PM to thousands of fans screaming ‘STEEVO’, typically British response to the scenario, he even commented on the chant later in the show, saying that during his first gigs in the UK he really wasn’t sure whether it was a heckle or appreciation.

Here’s a link for the setlist: http://www.setlist.fm/setlist/seasick-steve/2015/eventim-apollo-london-england-5bc89300.html. It was a great gig with songs old, new, fast and slow even a few covers. The only thing that was missing for me was my favourite of all his tracks ‘Cut My Wings’ I absolutely love that song, but its absence didn't bother me the gig was incredible. It was interesting to see all of his weird and wonderful instruments up on stage with him especially when he brought on the infamous diddley bow. This is where i start to blow my own trumpet like a loser. I mean not to brag or anything but let me take this opportunity to say I have also built a diddley bow of my own, you can catch it on TRW YouTube channel if you fancy. But anyway Steve’s is obviously far better than my amateur attempt, he built his from an old washboard that ‘looked like it was fallin’ apart’ so he fixed it up attached an old Banjo neck and VOILA he had himself a classic diddley bow. This song caught my attention the most when he used plasters to attach thimbles to the end of his fingers, he done this so that he was able to scratch the rough washboard whilst playing the one string to create a percussive accompaniment, incredible.

There was a lot of interaction with the crowd throughout the gig various stories etc as you can see at the beginning of the footage, at one point he spoke about the current vinyl revival occurring across the music industry whilst capitalizing on the opportunity to promote his new album simultaneously. He brought out to the stage a vinyl player and demonstrated to the crowd some of the bonus tracks that are available exclusively on the vinyl version of his new album ‘Sonic Soul Surfer’, which I, myself already have a copy of if you don’t then go, now! waste no more time. To top his witty interaction with the crowd toward the closing end of the set he invited a young lady up on the stage to which he romantically serenaded and asked her to pretend he was 50 years younger! He left the stage at the end of the gig and returned to the noise of the fans to play a three song encore which included one of his hits ‘Dog House Boogie’. A cracking gig if any of you reading this haven’t seen him then you must, make sure you get down to his next UK tour which we are completely unsure when that will be. For the time being grab his new album and enjoy the cracking blues tunes in time for what I hope will be a beautiful English summer! Wishful thinking?

Keep posted i’m hitting up a Slaves gig in a few weeks and will be putting up a review of that very soon!

Peace, TRW