Samantha Fish and Special Guests Curse of Lono
Thursday 16th May 2019
The Garage, Islington, London, United Kingdom
On a mild May evening I made the journey to The Garage in Islington, London to attend Samantha Fish’s headline show as part of her 2019 UK and European tour with special guests and friends of JLTT Curse of Lono.
The packed venue welcomed London’s Curse of Lono to the stage as the five-piece opened with ‘Blackout Fever’ from the band’s 2018 album ‘As I Fell’. Frontman Felix Bechtolsheimer has so much stage presence whether he is singing an emotional ‘Welcome Home’ or a punchy ‘Send in the Whisky’ which sees him grabbing a large drum. “Because I played this drum I have been called a multi-instrumentalist!” Felix chuckles.
Drummer Neil Findlay keeps things steady along with Charis Anderson on bass as they play a selection of tracks including ‘Way To Mars’, ‘No Trouble’, ‘And It Shows’ and ‘London Rain’ which features fantastic jazzy keyboard from Dani Ruiz Hernandez. Lead guitarist Joe Hazell excels on the electric slide guitar as it weaves through the Gothic sounding material.
Closing the set with the catchy previous single ‘Valentine’, Curse of Lono shows the crowd why they are on the 21-date tour with Samantha Fish and why they have previously secured slots with Chuck Prophet and Southside Johnny And The Ashbury Jukes. The material is interesting both lyrically and musically, they know how to structure a live performance and they are really down to earth people. They have a new album called ‘4am And Counting’ scheduled for release in the summer and have also recently confirmed an October 2019 headline UK Tour so check them out now before the venues get bigger.
This jaunt across the UK and Europe is prior to the release of Samantha Fish’s new album ‘Kill Or Be Kind’, the first record to be released by her new label Rounder Records.
The house lights then came down at a quarter past nine and Samantha Fish arrived with a smile alongside her three-piece band to loud cheers and rapturous applause as she grabbed her cigar-box guitar for opener ‘Bulletproof’ where Fish conjures up a Sitar tone which leaves me asking the question “I wonder if she is a Kula Shaker fan?” Fans of Seasick Steve would really dig this opening track from her forthcoming album.
A jazzy intro erupts for ‘Chills and Fever’ which was also the title track for her 2017 album whilst the heavy drum sound for 2015’s ‘Wild Heart’ showcases her energetic band. It was at this juncture where Samantha Fish asked the audience “Do you want to hear some new songs?” before treating us to the neo-soul style ‘Love Letters’ which has an early Corinne Bailey Rae sound alongside the fluid electric guitar. “It sounds really metal… because it is!” Samantha tells us prior to the airing of the other new track Watch It Die’ with its bitter lyrics and stadium rock guitar tone. These two songs are both different from each other and prove that Samantha Fish is not a woman to musically pigeon-hole.
Unfortunately, that was all we got to hear from the new album as she delved back into her back catalogue with pure country-rock in the shape of ‘Cowtown’ and a smoky jazz club atmosphere courtesy of ‘Blood In The Water’ both from her 2017 ‘Belle of The West’ record. Chris Alexander on bass, Phil Breen on keyboards and Scotty Graves on drums are all versatile musicians who help bring the songs to life.
However, for this scribe the highlight was the original composition entitled ‘Need You More’ in which Samantha Fish played an acoustic guitar with her clear passionate vocals. A hauntingly beautiful moment.
In conclusion, a Samantha Fish gig incorporates different genres and guitar tones that mean that one minute you are driving down the desert in an open-top car and the next you are in a jazz club in New York. She is a fiery guitarist, an expressive vocalist and is fortunate enough to have not only a stellar live band but also a wealth of material to pick from. I would have liked to of heard some more songs from her new album but hopefully she will factor that in to her future tours of the UK.
Glenn Sargeant
Feature Image Photo Credit: Backstage Flash
Additional Photography Credit: Eric Duvet and Zoran Veselinovic
Samantha Fish’s new album ‘Kill Or Be Kind’ is released on Friday 30th August 2019 on Rounder Records.
Read our official album announcement here: http://bit.ly/2Je65YS
For more information visit her official website here: http://bit.ly/2P94KWm
Curse of Lono will embark on a headline October 2019 UK Tour.
For tickets and more information visit the band’s official website here: http://bit.ly/2BXxriO
