You gotta love Larry Miller. He
may be about as contemporary as an episode of Minder, and bear about as much
relation to the Mississippi Delta as Arthur Daley, but the guy knows how to put
on a show. He delivers his brand of old school, shape-throwing, air-punching, meat
and potatoes 70s blues-rock with total abandon, and has the crowd on his side even
before the set opener ‘Mad Dog’ reaches its frothing climax. He careers around the stage, with frequent
off mic imprecations
to the crowd of “Yeah! Come on!” And when he isn’t gurning with intensity as
he wrings the life out of a Les Paul during another frantic solo, he’s grinning
fit to bust with sheer zest for it all – and his enjoyment of his work is utterly
infectious.
Larry Miller wrings that neck |
It’s full throttle stuff, and if the slow blues of ‘Calling All Angels’
is no classic then ‘Soldier Of The Line’, the title track of his latest album
does provide a satisfying breather, as Miller straps on an acoustic and conjures
up a suitably Gallic mood for its World War I tale.
Miller’s between songs banter is also unselfconscious and amusing. Introducing his inspiration Rory Gallagher's 'Walk On Hot Coals', he notes that it was recorded for Irish Tour '74 in Belfast around Christmas 1973, and pronounces "That's where I live - 1973!" He even
spins an amiably daft spiel about the movie Braveheart as he introduces ‘One Fine
Day’, which is another highlight drawn from his latest album. So too is ‘Mississippi Mama’, a stomper of a
song with a riff from rock heaven.
Set closer ‘Backstabber Blues’ may be a long-standing staple of Miller’s
set, but endearingly that doesn’t stop him forgetting the first line. It really doesn’t matter though, as he and
his band keep the ‘Cell Block No 9’ style riff going. Drummer Graham Walker and Derek White on bass
are sterling sidemen throughout, laying down solid foundations on top of which Miller
can do his thing.
After all this, doing Gary Moore’s ‘Parisienne Walkways’ as a second
encore seems a bit anti-climactic - a better option would be the typically high
octane ‘Still Ain't Done With The Blues’. It
would also be appropriate, since if he ever gets round to writing his life
story, I reckon that could be the title.
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