Supposedly The Cluny isn’t sold out for this visit by Dan
Patlansky. You could have fooled
me. Arriving a bit later than intended,
I find myself perching on a step at the back of the room to get a decent view. Evidently Dan Patlansky is creating some
expectations, and tonight he does an impressive job of meeting them.
Dapper in a double-breasted waistcoat and white shirt, he
gets out of the starting blocks with the punchy and rhythmic ‘Johnny’, followed
up by ‘Never Long Enough’, both from new album Perfection Kills. It’s
testament to his live performance, and the tightness of the band he’s recruited
in Hamburg for this tour, that the latter packs a good deal more oomph than on
the album. Keyboard player Tom Gatza
then underlines his contribution with sparkling piano and organ solos on ‘Heartbeat’,
from 2016’s Introvertigo album.
 |
| "Here we go again!" says Dan Patlansky's Strat |
Patlansky underlines his blues roots with a driving version
of BB King’s ‘You Upset Me Baby’. His
own approach is decidedly different from the ‘single note’ playing style of BB
however. When he lays back, as on
‘Mayday’, with its gentle, considered guitar work, he can become almost
hypnotically fluid in a manner that reminds me of Hendrix in ‘The Wind Cries
Mary’ mode. Later, on ‘Still Wanna Be
Your Man’, he comes up with a lovely intro that suggests David Gilmour – another avowed influence – and his subsequent solo, delicately shimmering, is a piece
of pin drop precision. And then when
they plunge into ‘Bite Back’, with its tumbling riff, he conjures up echoes of
Jimi’s playfulness.
There’s plenty of all action stuff going on around this too,
with the funky ‘Stop The Messing’ featuring clavinet from Gatza and a heavy
groove from Jonathan Murphy on bass and Felix Dehmel on drums, before they
expertly take it down in synch to a cooler segment. They execute some subtle key changes on the
jagged ‘Dog Days’ too, while Patlansky’s solo does a great job of serving the
song – not a principle guitar honchos always respect. Cranking out a Led-heavy riff on ‘Bring The
World To Its Knees’ they make the song live up to its title, and Patlansky
doubles down by getting well and truly tore in on his solo.
‘My Chana’ is becoming a celebrated set closer, and it’s not
for the showcasing of the band on a tricksy funk workout, nor for the jazzy
scales he throws into the mix. This is
the moment for Patlansky’s personal brand of guitar hocus pocus, standing his
beat up old Strat on end and wrenching sounds of it in weird and wonderful
ways, even tinkering with its innards via the back of the body. It’s the sort of thing that can descend into
noodling and noise in the wrong hands, but he manages it with control as well as
flair, and maintains the focus right to the end.
The whole set, in fact, is a well-designed rollercoaster,
with plenty of twists and turns and changes of pace. And Patlansky, not naturally the most
extrovert of characters, engages energetically between songs too. I might have liked to hear more from his
excellent 2014 album Dear Silence Thieves,
but I had a damn good night regardless, thank you very much. Dan Patlansky didn’t just meet my
expectations with this show, he exceeded them.
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