Fiddlers Club, Bristol, UK
Set-List:
Song To The Siren, Shine It All Around, Takamba, Friends, Tin Pan Valley, 29 Palms, Misty Mountain Hop, Four Sticks, Nirvana, Slow Dancer, Freedom Fries, Black Dog, Gallow’s Pole
Encore: 7+7 Is, Whole Lotta love
Reviews:
Probably the smallest club I’d seen Robert on since Priory days, the 450 capacity club in downtown Bristol, was already hot and sticky by the time we got there. The support band, AurA were excellent, performing a mixture 60’s and 70’s covers as well as there own material, Tunnel Vision and the Neil Young song, My Life, both stand out.
Robert and The Strange Sensations came on around 10.30 with the surprise opener of Song To The Siren, perhaps the perfect opener for such intimate surrounding. Shine it All Around ups the tempo before the brilliant Takamba. Friends moves along nicely and fits in well with the middle eastern tint of the Strange Sensations. 29 Palms still works with it’s stripped and slowed down approach, although the new version of Misty Mountain Hop was frankly both strange and confusing. Nirvana was a real joy, a lost nugget not played since 1990. The slowed down Slow Dancer was a nice interlude but maybe the full band version world work better with the Sensations firing on all cylinders. Talking of which, Freedom Fries injects some pace into the night with some great interplay between Robert, Justin and Skin. Black Dog has, in my opinion, out stayed there welcome by now, but is still much liked by the audience, Gallows Pole finishes the main set with it’s now familiar jaunty tempo.
7 + 7 Is kicks off the encores and was for me the highlight, the whole band now really flying, the energy generating from the stage just awesome. Whole Lotta Love closes tonight, no surprise there and even I’m really beginning to enjoy this Middle Eastern tinted version.
A great night, pity he can’t lose some of the Zepp numbers and introduce some numbers from his own solo career and it was disappointing no hint of new material from the band. The Sensations are Roberts’s longest serving band now and I hope there around this time next year for a new album. The tour started tonight in Bristol and is due to end in the Brecon Beacons, Wales in August with around 18 festival dates in between, here’s hoping the Strange Sensation carry on, because there’s so much more this band can offer.
Review by Gary Foy
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