Lighting by Caravaggio, Dutch old school beer
… and music from old masters.
Plunger made a Bigger Splash over the Starry Night that announced The Arrival of what would become Walrus last year, so there was always the Suspicion our Last Judgment was just a Mirage… [enough with the art gags, Ed.]
Nah… when even the sound check noodle between the two guitars sounds better than most shows you hear elsewhere, then you know it definitely is a masterpiece.
The hour-long set opened with the sinuous slide and big-hitting drums of Glen Campbell’s favourite Southern Slide number Goldrush, with Stevie Watts on keys adding both the bass and some great static-right-hand gutsiness and a singing squally southern fried solo from Rosco Levee.
A triptych of post-Blues Period works followed: the stylish, trippy, descending progression and clever time changes of Write It In The Sky accented with Mike Ross’ scorching slide; the vibrant punchy scattergun verse and shout along chorus of Yeah, Yeah brimming with fuzz and crash cymbal brio; and the intricate eastern-style canvas of Spinning In The Sand. Discursive modal noodling over lysergic shuffle drums, spacey vocals and an extended acidic slide excursion exploding into an interstellar overdrive power chord and harmony line freak out, the interweaving guitar, Rick Kent’s complex drumming and meaty organ building to a pile-driving riff platform for Roscos ferocious closing solo.
Mike Ross introduced a complementary trio from Jenny’s Place: a chugging-groove take on Aretha Franklin’s I Love You had stinging slide call and response between the two guitars, and saw Mike amply answer the shouted pre-song enquiry “Who’s got the bollocks to sing an Aretha number?” While the hard-edged Hookerish boogie of Harpo allowed Stevie to break loose with an alternately fluid and jagged organ break with more than a touch of the Lord about it. That latter track also showcased Mike’s belligerent vox and was embellished with scything Duane-on steroids slide from Rosco answered by Mike’s howling, squealing wah-laden Hendrix-meets-Elmore-James riposte.
The dreamy reds-haze country soul waltz of Lazy featured impassioned vocal running from heartbroken falsetto to gruff bellow, Stevie’s perfectly suited ‘cheesy’n’churchy’ organ harmonies closing in an expressive fat-and-fuzzy crying and wailing slide lead from Mike and Rosco’s sublime soaring and skittering lines.
Two more new(er) numbers showed Walrus’ eclectic palette: Glimmer Of Hope ranged from urgent snare-led go-go bop to a acid-heavy flaring power chord unison riff midbreak, with impressively high falsetto harmony vocals; while Not Forgotten mixed a moody melodic West Coast vibe with with harder-edged splashes of 70s Brit rock from Lennon via The Kinks to Slade, a violent boisterous riff with short sharp squirts of solo, and a Kashmiry rising closing phrase.
Those two tracks bookended old favourite Woman (I Told You So): introduced with the simple statement “This is the blues kitchen… and this is a blues song” it proved to be anything so straightforward: a portentous, punishing Doors-meets-Velvets lope with Rosco’s gritty full-on scream, Doorsy Farfisa-tone organ lines and a screaming two-guitar assault to close.
More bite than a Hurst shark, more energy than a Jackson Pollock kinetic, more zing than a Kandinsky Composition… a Walrus show is a work of modern art, not a museum piece.
[for the culture vultures, we didn’t make up those paintings: Bigger Splash - David Hockney, Starry Night - Vincent van Gogh, Arrival - Christopher Nevinson, Suspicion - Thomas Unwin, Last Judgment - Hieronymus Bosch, Mirage - Salvador Dali]