I agreed to review this gig on the day of the show and had no idea what either band were going to sound like so I needed convincing they were better than staying on the sofa. But of course I needed to see the last date on Fantastic Negrito's UK tour to promote The Last Days Of Oakland album.
I arrived just after Wildwood Kin had started and they were a trio of very winsome sisters trying very hard to be the new Ward Thomas with beautiful harmonies and extremely pleasant but ultimately boring music. Sadly they also have nothing remotely as catchy as A Town Called Ugley.
They seemed to have a lot of major label interest and I'd guess it's for songs like Turning Tides and Warrior Daughter, both of which showed plenty of musical talent. However, the only thing I was focusing on was the middle sisters drumming, she was playing just two drums - one a long drum and a small snare that she played standing up and mainly with mallets giving her a very Bo Diddley meets Mo Tucker sound that was sort of at odds with the Mandolin and acoustic guitars being strummed and picked like a budget Vashti Bunyan. The drums sounded like they needed amping up and to be backing a garage rock band.
By the time they finished with Listen, all I was listening to was the drumming. I'd almost see them again just to watch and listen to the drummer.
Then, after the break, from the moment the Keyboards kicked in it was like we were back at the Chicken Shack but with a Sly Stone-style singer ready to holler down the house like he was gonna shake the shack all night long.
Damn, the singer Xavier is one great charismatic front man who drew us in as they tried to Burn It Down with some full on funky sermonizing. Wow, he has met a Scary Woman and well she scares him like Betty Davis might scare you. The sort of scary that's a turn on.
Xavier does his best Mr Loverman Mack Daddy routine before Darker Side Of Love; the first song wherein I started to notice how many of the songs seemed to be worked round old Blues Hollers and classic songs from the Prison Blues Of the South and other Alan Lomax recordings. Damn these songs had some deep roots helping to make them super funky.
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Humping Through The Winter went back to the poor disenfranchised trying to get by with a good wild funky blues preacher man feel to it. The next song that I have down as The Pain but it might be Rant Rushmore. Whatever, it was a real gospel field holler funked up with a Jimmy Smith meets Brian Auger type backing.
They then took us out to Parchman Farm for a real good down and dirty and mainly acoustic cover of Leadbelly's In the Pines which lent it a good gospel edge to it, singing the first verse and a half totally acoustic due to technical difficulties. Nonetheless, it worked brilliantly and it had just enough desperation to make the lyrics real and believable. It's always good to hear that song played live and this was a real treat.
They then had a mass sing-along on Take that Bullshit and Turn It Into Good Shit: a real Sly stone rave up party on down and get the whole church singing that chorus over and over and take the roof off the sucker. Damn it was good. They then closed with the short instrumental vamp that was introduced as Elevate and well, it got us all jumping and crying for some more.
They returned for an encore and after suitable thanks to everyone who brought them over and helped on the tour they played Lost In a Crowd: another suitably funky tune for Bessie to get good and messy to. That was it and this was all over far too soon as I think they left us all wanting at least another half dozen songs. I want to see Fantastic Negrito again next time they are over, as damn, they've got it.
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