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JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR,
O2 Academy, Islington, London 16 November 2011

Photo Gallery by Bob Singleton

This was a gig I was really looking forward to. I'd been introduced to the music of Joanne Shaw Taylor by a good friend earlier in the year and had been blown away.

I immediately downloaded her two albums from iTunes and have listened to them regularly in the car when driving to other gigs these past few months.

I searched You Tube for clips of live performances, I read her interviews... indeed, I immersed myself in everything that was Joanne Shaw Taylor. So, as I said, this was a gig I was really looking forward to.

First up on stage, however, were the eponymous P-A-U-L (named after singer/guitarist Paul Andrew Ulysses Lamb), also known as Paul Lamb and The Detroit Breakdown.

Two thirds of the band would later take to the stage as Joanne Shaw Taylor's band, but for the first 45 minutes or so they mostly played Paul Lamb's own blues rock compositions from his newly released 'Tales from the Gravel' album.

At times Paul Lamb's gruff, Bourbon soaked voice sounds forced, especially on the heavier songs such as show opener 'Pistol Whipped Again', but his guitar playing is wondrous.

At other times, such as the show closing rock ballad 'We Believe', his voice is perfectly attuned to the music. 'Bite You' has you thinking you're about to watch an episode of The Flintstones with its distinctly odd opening "Yabba yabba yabba yabba yabba yabba do" chorus, and was probably the weakest song of the set.

On stage with him, the powerhouse drumming of the diminutive Layla Hall and Joey Spina on bass provide the, often funky, foundations on which Paul Lamb's scorching guitar is allowed full rein.

Set List: Pistol Whipped Again, Forever Young and Free, Shine On, The New Machine, The One, Bite You and We Believe

That the venue was only a quarter full when P-A-U-L took to the stage was no great surprise... a Detroit-based band acting as a support in London was never likely to bring hundreds through the doors, but that, after a lengthy wait (about 20 minutes after the scheduled start of her set) the venue should be barely a third full for Joanne Shaw Taylor was, to me, a shock and a disappointment.

Yet in spite of this poor turn out, Joanne walked purposefully up to her microphone and immediately kicked off with 'Going Home' from her 2009 'White Sugar' album. A few flicks of her long blonde hair here, and a few twirls around the stage there and we're into 'Jump That Train' from her 2010 offering, 'Diamonds in the Dirt'

Joanne Shaw Taylor's confidence in her own guitar playing ability makes the whole set look effortless, and Paul Lamb (now on bass) and Layla Hall on drums provide ample support.

Part way through the set we are treated to a cover of 'Manic Depression' (Jimi Hendrix) which has much of the crowd in raptures, then it's back to a mix of songs from her two albums before ending with a lengthy version of Don Nix's 'Going' Down' which sees first Joanne leave the stage for a breather before Paul Lamb takes away first one stick then the other from Layla Hall, leaving her to complete her drum solo bare handed, before a final flick of her long dreadlocks swishes a cymbal.

There is a moment of silence before the drums crash again, the bass comes in and striding back on stage Joanne Shaw Taylor rips through the last few licks bringing the song to its final crescendo. Superb.

A brief respite as the band go off and the crowd shout for more, and we're allowed one last song as an encore (curfew has long since passed), 'Can't Keep Living Like This'.

I've not written a long review of this gig for one reason; the appalling sound quality throughout both sets. Having heard both bands live before, and listened to their albums, I know what they are capable of.

The sound was distorted, and the bass so over heavy that it drowned out everything else. It got worse the further back the venue you went, which is ironic as that's where the sound desk was located!

I even mentioned the poor quality of the sound to the "engineer" (as did many others) as he sat there checking his emails or whatever on his iPhone and his reply was "what do you want me to do about it?"
 

I feel genuinely sorry for anyone attending a Joanne Shaw Taylor gig for the first time on Wednesday as they would no doubt have come away thinking what all the fuss was about her. Was this really the best female blues vocalist of 2010? Well, yes it was, but you'd never have known tonight.

The sound was distorted, and the bass so over heavy that it drowned out everything else. It got worse the further back the venue you went, which is ironic as that's where the sound desk was located!

I even mentioned the poor quality of the sound to the "engineer" (as did many others) as he sat there checking his emails or whatever on his iPhone and his reply was "what do you want me to do about it?"

Throughout the set, the meagre crowd had diminished as people left early muttering about the quality of the sound, and as I left after the final song, P-A-U-L bassist Joey Spina (who was manning the merchandise stall) was being harangued by upset fans complaining about the poor sound quality.

I don't know if Joanne Shaw Taylor had her own sound engineer or if the sound check had been done by in-house people, but someone, somewhere got things very wrong.

Just to round off this piece, may I point you toward Pete Feenstra's review(link below) from when the bands played the same venue in May when the sound quality was superb.

Set List: Going Home, Jump That Train, Just Another Word, Watch 'em Burn, Diamonds in the Dirt, Dead and Gone, Manic Depression, Kiss the Ground Goodbye, Time Has Come, Bones, Blackest Day, Goin' Down and Can't Keep Living Like This


Review and photos by Bob Singleton

Gig review (31.05.11)