Saturday night. Played the Brussels Rhythm and Blues Club. It's a rock-on-out evening organised every month by Jonathan Todd and Geoff Meade at Sounds. JT's been rather reluctant about taking on About Time II, as he finds the Zen Blues repertoire somewhat demanding. However, having given him assurances as to our ability to act out the hard-drinking, high-testosterone blues band cliché, he took the risk and, ultimate accolade, he wants us back!
The evening was a little bit "Back to the Future". They have a house band, "The Witness", which, fronted by an ageing Vietnamese Mick Jagger impersonator with poor English, do a pretty decent job on all the old Beatles and Stones classics from the early sixties. Meanwhile, we'd weighted the repertoire heavily in favour of late sixties Hendrix and Cream material, which gave us the opportunity of unleashing Michel on the unsuspecting audience. People were left wandering around in a blank state of shock as he ripped into "Red House". Grown men wept uncontrollably, blood spurting from their ears, as he soared into axe-man hyperspace! Women gave birth spontaneously as he tore into "Voodoo Child"! The sheer displacement of air as he worked his own feed-back pinned audience members to the walls! So, all in all, a pretty good night out.
Had a quick chat with Sergio, the owner, on the way out. "See you next month", I said, as we're playing there on our own billing on the 28th April. "Sure, but maybe a little bit less rock", he said pleadingly!
In fact, I hope to sneak in a bit more of my "Weltanschauungsjazz" from off the album, plus a couple of new songs perhaps. We'll keep you posted.