Jesse Dayton
Jumping Hot Club
Gosforth Civic Theatre
Newcastle
27 Oct 2017.
Getting to go to gigs on Friday nights are becoming a very rare commodity these days, but the prospect of seeing local Rock & Rolling legends the Sour Mash Trio alongside Jesse Dayton was far too good an opportunity to miss.
First of all this is a brand new venue for promoters The Jumping Hot Club; but I guess won’t be the last time they circle the wagons here……great stage, great sound and two well staffed bars…..what’s not to like?
Far too easily pigeon-holed as a Rockabilly act, the Sour Mash lads got off to a reelin’ and a rockin’ start with Sugar Daddy, a staple of their act for several years now and has matured nicely; as have others like Drinking Spree and An Empty Bottle (and a Broken Heart) which I remember playing many years ago in their raw demo forms on my old Sunday night Wireless Broadcasts.
With songs this good there’s very little reason to fill out the set with covers, like they used to do; but tonight they did slip in two. One, a Buddy Holly song I didn’t recognise gave new guitarist the incredibly young looking Joe Guillan the opportunity to really, really show what a brilliant and smart guitarist he is (and always has been!).
Although probably too old in the tooth for Global Domination, there’s no reason these three crazy kids shouldn’t go into the studio and record an album of their own self-penned songs some time soon……I know I already receive a helluva lot worse from ‘name’ acts.
Bizarrely I’d passed Jesse Dayton in the foyer earlier in the evening and not recognised him; thinking he was just one of the local Rockabilly crowd…..DOH!
So, no fancy stage clothes for Jesse and his fellow band members; just double denim that looked like it hadn’t been washed since they left home and their biker boots certainly needed a polish (does that make me sound old?).
With no into and the house lights still dimming Jesse called out “1-2-3-4!” and BOOM they ripped into Daddy Is a Badass from the Revealer album and within a minute 5 couples were dancing at the back of the hall, and plenty of chaps were shuffling their feet near the bar.
That song felt like someone sticking the key into a classic Harley, of which Dayton is so fond of mentioning and the monster rumble just got louder and sweeter as the night went on.
With no time for anyone to catch breath, least of all the trio on the stage they immediately launched into an incendiary Holy Ghost Rock & Roller before finally slowing things down with the heartfelt The Way We Are; which is about the trials and tribulations of being a troubadour Bar Band.
After a lifetime on the road (with Waylon, Cash, Willie and Ray Price) Dayton isn’t shy on a stage and has a presence worthy of much bigger venues than he’s playing on this tour (with tonight’s 100+ being the biggest crowd so far!) and his stories that introduced the likes of Possum Ran Over My Grave and 3 Pecker Goat were as funny as they were self-depreciating; leaving me thinking “I wouldn’t mind having a beer in his company.”
Pretty much the whole of The Revealer got played tonight; and the inclusion of the beautiful Mrs. Victoria (a Beautiful Thing) would have been a highlight on any other night but this evening, Dayton’s song about inter-racial tolerance coincidentally came on the weekend Newcastle was celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King being given the Freedom of our Multi-Cultural city; and coupled with all of the crazy things happening in the States these days…..it’s a very relevant song indeed 10/10.
What more can I say? I half expected a gang of Biker Dudes to march in during Devil’s On The Front Porch and there was a battle of wills between the drummer and bass-player on a ‘White Trash, honky-tonker that is shorter than a Ramones song’ which I missed the title of!
But mostly this was a night for dancing and loving, with the sultry Loretta and the dirty swampy song from True Blood were absolute highlights; but the song I was singing out loud in the car on the way home was I’m At Home Getting Hammered (While She’s Out Getting Nailed)……..Friday nights just don’t get better than this (at my age.)
If you don’t already know Jesse Dayton check out The Revealer https://rockingmagpie.wordpress.com/2016/11/12/jesse-dayton-the-revealer/ and if you get the chance to see him and his band play live…..take it….he is and they are The Real Deal!
Photo-Set courtesy Harrisonaphotos http://www.harrisonaphotos.co.uk/Music/Jesse-Dayton-JHC-Gosfoth/
The Rocking Magpie 