Music / Reviews
Review: Blitzen Trapper, Fleece
Blitzen Trapper are Eric Earley; (lead vocals, lead and rhythm guitar, keyboard, harmonica &banjo), Erik Menteer (lead, rhythm and slide guitar, percussion & moog synthesizer); Brian Adrian Koch (drums, backup vocals & harmonica); Michael Van Pelt (bass, bird whistle, percussion & harmonica) and Marty Marquis (rhythm guitar, backup & occasional lead vocals, keyboard, harmonica, percussion & melodica).
Blitzen Trapper have just released their ninth studio recording Wild and Reckless and they brought selections from that waxing, along with many others, to the Fleece on a pretty miserable, grey & wet Monday night as part of their extensive European tour. They were greeted with exuberance by the crowd, delighted the band were back in town after an absence of a decade.
is needed now More than ever
Blitzen Trapper played an absolute fucking scorcher of a show.
They welded the greasy groove of The Band in their pomp to the sassy strut of Little Feat (particularly on When I’m Dying). Their harmonious were fearless, evocative of CS&N (notably on Love Live On), and Earley’s lead vocals a warm, heartfelt rasp totally in service to each tune’s lyric. They extended songs into funky cosmic jams; jams that rocked and teased with nimble prog sensibility; jams that never lost sight of the tune or wandered off in to indulgence (All Across This Land was filled to bursting with monster riffs but never bored and never bludgeoned).
The presentation was unfussy with crystal clear sound and the band easy with each other on the stage, plenty of smiles, clearly enjoying both their performance and the crowd reaction. There was plenty of humour too: “Any harmonica players out there? Well I guess you’re from Alabama or Tennessee, where they got the blues real bad and no plumbing”. The crowd were in raptures throughout, word perfect and dancing, more than pleased the band were back in town after the monster absence – noted by Marquis with a tip of the hat to the Thekla. The band even survived Earley forgetting a lyric, crashing and burning the excellent Rebel and forcing a restart of the tune.
Black River Killer was undoubtedly the most popular cut of the evening, a powerful yet stately rendition, but then the new tunes were received with delight and the well-judged set satisfied in terms of style and span. The set climaxed with a rampant No Man’s Land, paused momentarily with the jaunty, trippy Thirsty Man before closing with a raucous Wild and Reckless clearly a fan favourite and show stopping classic in the making.
Earley returned alone for the encore, opening with an elegiac and uplifting Stranger in a Strange Land closely followed by an atmospheric The Man Who Would Speak True, one of the prettiest murder spree tales you’ll ever hear. The band returned for a stripped back Lady on the Water before Rock and Roll (Was Made for You) finished the evening in rambunctious style, a blizzard of duelling leads,leaving the crowd hollering for more but satisfied.
Blitzen Trapper: Fleece, Monday 09 April 2018
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