Sunday 07/09/03 Soledad Brothers @ Barfly, Liverpool

Rarely have a band come with such fully formed credentials of cool as Detroit's Soledad Brothers. Apart from their esteemed birthplace, one of them lives with Jack White, one's dated Meg, there's a MC5 connection somewhere, and then there's that name inspired by the trio of convicts at the centre of botched and bloody jailbreak attempt at California's Soledad Prison in the early '70s. It's all a bit too good to be true as their rather disappointing album 'Voice Of Treason' proves. However, with one live album already under their belts, the Brothers at least have the reputation as a band whose formula of experimental blues and old school Stones riff n roll is best experienced live.

Despite being a three piece, the Soledad Brothers revert to the modern trend of pissing on the legacy of Level 42's Mark "Thunderthumb" King by rejecting the bass. What's left is the rather directionless sound of two men playing slide guitar over the sound of a drummer basically doing what he wants. It all seems terribly exciting at first but as song after song follows the exact same pattern, ending with the inevitable "freakout", one begins to wonder if all this garage blues thing, is well a bit boring. Only the superb Stones' pastiche 'Teenage Heart Attack' offers any real excitement.

Thankfully, we are saved from total tedium by the unlikely intervention of a saxophone. As Oliver Henry blows a messy voodoo style horn over everything, the Brothers seem to regain their purpose and the attention of a crowd. All of a sudden the songs seem to take unexpected swoops and turns and singer Johnny Walker even begins to take on the role of showman and preacher as he introduces both his band and his fellow Detroit rockers as 'vermin on our shores'. By now he's wearing the grin of a man who knows he's turned things around and well he should. A forthcoming tour with Spiritualized could well prove more challenging but for now the Soledad Brother's aren't quite at those dreaded crossroads. And I can't see any Hell Hounds.

Photo by Sakura Henderson :: sakura@gigwise.com