Ray La Montagne
The lurgy has gone thankfully. Now I can be human again.
The Mrs, her sister and I went to the waterfront hall last night to hear the dulcet tones of Mr Montagne. We heard him first on Jools Holland's tv program, must have been around Christmas 2004 or Jan 2005. Blown away, we were. Thought he sounded like Otis Redding the first time we heard him. Mesmerised might be a term to use. Then we got the album and ranted and raved to everyone we knew about him. Not many takers. Getting older and not having the same tight circle of friends, but that is for another post.....
We then aquired the 2nd album, I am not going to say how but suffice to say we do own 2 legitimate versions, 1 of each album now, and wahey it is better in parts than the first one. 3 more days being a personal favourite.
The gig -
Support was Leona Naess. Nice voice. Wouldn't go out of my way to hear more.
The band-
Absolutely fantastic. I really, really wanted to get up and dance when he and his band played 3 more days. I am not a big fan of all seated gigs at all. Truly wonderful band, a drummer who can keep it low and reined in only to let it loose when it is needed is a rare thing outside of jazz. Maybe he is normally a jazz drummer, I dunno. Slide guitar player gave things a really "country" feel and then the slide player switched to a telecaster and played the brass section parts. Niiice.
Bass player, female-nice to see, not enough female players in bands. She danced through the music both physically and with her playing. Magic.
Ray hisself-
Skinny dude with a beard who dresses like me. Wish I had a voice like that though.
Voice of an angel, albeit an angel with a 60 fags a day habit. What a voice ( wonderful song writing too).
I could listen to him sing all day long. That man has SOUL.
What a wonderful gig indeed. Chips on the way home courtesy of "Eatsville" just before they closed.
I have a question...what is is with Belfast crowds on a Saturday night? Do all the arseholes come out of the woodwork? There were some morons heckling trying to make themselves look clever. Not big. Not clever. Not funny.
Thoughts of evisceration crossed my mind. This really only points out what a sick and twisted mind I have.
I was amazed at the amount of people there who only knew the singles off the first album. No, really I was. Why fork out money to hear a couple of songs only to record it on your mobile phone video camera. Must be gratifying to watch a fuzzy coloured blob with bad audio and tell your friends "That's him isn't he great?" Aye, right.
Understanding some things about photography an' all, the amount of eejits taking pictures with puny flashes on their wee digicams or mobile phone cams made me laugh. There is no way that those wee flashes are gonna make it all the way to the stage and back to your camera lens and give you enough light for a good photo. No way. Oh, how I laughed. Inwardly of course, no point attracting attention and marking oneself out as a "loony".
Since when do people not get thrown out for taking pictures during a gig? I would have turfed the buggers out, that'll teach them for blinding half the audience with their little strobes.
I feel better now for getting all that out of my system.
Don't get me started on trying to get out of the carpark.........
The Mrs, her sister and I went to the waterfront hall last night to hear the dulcet tones of Mr Montagne. We heard him first on Jools Holland's tv program, must have been around Christmas 2004 or Jan 2005. Blown away, we were. Thought he sounded like Otis Redding the first time we heard him. Mesmerised might be a term to use. Then we got the album and ranted and raved to everyone we knew about him. Not many takers. Getting older and not having the same tight circle of friends, but that is for another post.....
We then aquired the 2nd album, I am not going to say how but suffice to say we do own 2 legitimate versions, 1 of each album now, and wahey it is better in parts than the first one. 3 more days being a personal favourite.
The gig -
Support was Leona Naess. Nice voice. Wouldn't go out of my way to hear more.
The band-
Absolutely fantastic. I really, really wanted to get up and dance when he and his band played 3 more days. I am not a big fan of all seated gigs at all. Truly wonderful band, a drummer who can keep it low and reined in only to let it loose when it is needed is a rare thing outside of jazz. Maybe he is normally a jazz drummer, I dunno. Slide guitar player gave things a really "country" feel and then the slide player switched to a telecaster and played the brass section parts. Niiice.
Bass player, female-nice to see, not enough female players in bands. She danced through the music both physically and with her playing. Magic.
Ray hisself-
Skinny dude with a beard who dresses like me. Wish I had a voice like that though.
Voice of an angel, albeit an angel with a 60 fags a day habit. What a voice ( wonderful song writing too).
I could listen to him sing all day long. That man has SOUL.
What a wonderful gig indeed. Chips on the way home courtesy of "Eatsville" just before they closed.
I have a question...what is is with Belfast crowds on a Saturday night? Do all the arseholes come out of the woodwork? There were some morons heckling trying to make themselves look clever. Not big. Not clever. Not funny.
Thoughts of evisceration crossed my mind. This really only points out what a sick and twisted mind I have.
I was amazed at the amount of people there who only knew the singles off the first album. No, really I was. Why fork out money to hear a couple of songs only to record it on your mobile phone video camera. Must be gratifying to watch a fuzzy coloured blob with bad audio and tell your friends "That's him isn't he great?" Aye, right.
Understanding some things about photography an' all, the amount of eejits taking pictures with puny flashes on their wee digicams or mobile phone cams made me laugh. There is no way that those wee flashes are gonna make it all the way to the stage and back to your camera lens and give you enough light for a good photo. No way. Oh, how I laughed. Inwardly of course, no point attracting attention and marking oneself out as a "loony".
Since when do people not get thrown out for taking pictures during a gig? I would have turfed the buggers out, that'll teach them for blinding half the audience with their little strobes.
I feel better now for getting all that out of my system.
Don't get me started on trying to get out of the carpark.........
posted by Mudflapgypsy at 1:00 PM
4 Comments:
I'm not a fan of seated gigs either but I would've suffered it for Ray. I have to admit though I haven't heard most of his stuff yet but my favourite song so far is Jolene. You're right the dude has soul. I want him in my living room playing just for me but that's greedy.
Meant to go to gig, but my ticket dealers let me down. Well actually the fact that the gig sold out pretty fast probably is the real culprit, so I suppose we have to blame it on the man himself. Anyway will make do with listening to the CD till next time.
My youngest daughter Hannah is a big fan of Ray La Montagne.
Guess who has just worked out how to get their comments to work....duuuh.
Dave, "The CD?" there is a second album now. Really nice horn section and electric piano too.
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