Jesse Malin at The Rescue Rooms
It’s been a weekend of contrasting gig attendances for the LMM team.
On Saturday night I popped into Sheffield Walkabout where DJ Lenny Sultana was holding court and party band Brightside were a brilliant last minute addition to the bill.
Sheffield Walkabout holds a great place in my affections being one of the first northern Walkabout bars to open (and in my old home town at that.) I can remember sitting in the old church building prior to the venue opening with Steve the sound engineer discussing the tech spec and working out how all the equipment was going to be set up. Since then we have had hundreds (maybe thousands) of function bands playing on the stage. It was also the home, for a long time, of Bandeoke (aka Live band Karaoke or Rockaoke) in the North Of England.
On Saturday Brightside put on a great show with set opener “Sweet Home Alabama” giving way to Stay Tonight by Eagle Eyed Cherry before the band brought it bang up to date with Lady Ga Ga and other chart hits. Brightside have forged a reputation as a good value wedding band and Saturday showed just how versatile this band are. With a confident and exceptional female singer they had no trouble motivating the city centre crowd with their anthemic set and on the money musicianship. As ever Steve’s sound levels were brilliant. DJ Lenny who has a side line in mobile DJ work as well as his city centre shows proved himself to be a strong host and played some top tunes.
We finished our Sheffield Saturday in Dada which is a new edition to the Thornbridge Brewery empire in the site of the old Trippets Wine Bar on Trippet Lane. With a strong line up of beers and nice decor with a distinct Sheffield vibe (even down to Pete McKees signature on the wall) this is a welcome addition to the Sheffield bar scene.
Sunday night saw us at the Rescue Rooms in Nottingham watching New York rocker Jesse Malin who is a hard working,touring singer cut from the Springsteen, Gaslight Anthem, Ryan Adams mould. He was playing one of his early albums (The Fine Art Of Self Destruction ) in it’s entirety. It was a brilliant,passionate show which suggested that this singer songwriter with his band of New York,leather clad bandmates should be way better known. Support from acts like Special Needs and New York singer songwriter Don D’Marto (???) made this a top value night out for lovers of melodic jangly rock music. Check out Jesse Malin and The St Marks Social when they pass through your town.