"Bloody Excellent! and much better than I was expecting. Did not believe they were going to be that animated. "Frankie's Gun" was the only disappointment, and "Whiskey in My Whiskey" turned out to be a mass sing a long. My other half said they were a 'breath of fresh air' and I must concur with her.
Ian is so slight when compared to his brother James, a big bear of a man who looked as if he was wrestling with his accordion at times and did liked the way they all interchanged roles with even Greg Farley playing lead and singing a new song.
Was also impressed with A A Bondy who opened and played with the band on a number of numbers"
A first rate concert and very memorable.
A review from another on songkick
"So, so, so good! Really a must-see-live kind of band. I was feeling really under the weather, but I'm so glad that I still went. Even sitting way up in the second tier balcony of Shepherds Bush Empire, I could feel the energy of the band. Don't think I've ever seen the audience at that venue as engaged as they were with Felice Brothers!
Highlights included "Helen Fry", "Take This Bread", "Murder By Mistletoe", a cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Two Hands", and of course, "Love Me Tenderly" and "Frankie's Gun". During the latter two you could tell that they were a bit bored with playing them -- Ian Felice rushed through a lot of the lyrics, but they were still good. I was really hoping they would play "Ruby Mae", which, unfortunately, wasn't included in the lengthly 20-song + encore set.
It's been a long time since I saw a band that was infused with such energy and charisma - they just looked like they were having so much fun on stage. There were stage antics aplenty, complete with multi-instrumentalist Greg Farley bashing his washboard into the drummer's ride symbol, and Ian doing laps around the entire stage during the keyboard solo or standing on top of the kick drum.
Ian Felice is so slight, he looked almost like a puppet at times -- doing a sort of Charleston dance-step, sometimes rocking back and forth so much he looked like he was waltzing. His Dylan-esque rasp is so perfect for the songs, it was hard not to feel like you were in a world of speakeasies or the small-town Catskills.
Highly recommended, I'd love to see them in a smaller venue (or at least closer to the stage) next time!"
No comments:
Post a Comment