The Gov
Saturday 28 May 2022
Support for Robben Ford was Adelaide girl, Jessica Luxx. Her Facebook page tells us “Where 60’s Dream Pop meets Country music, Jessica Luxx brings her unique storytelling and sing along chorus’ to leave you with a feeling of nostalgia and imagination” which does sum up her sound nicely. Armed with only an acoustic guitar, Jessica struggled to be heard over the beer drinking, predominantly male audience, but she won many over with her lovely voice and songs, including one called Balhannah. One song she played with harmonica, sounding like early Neil Young and then Jessica did a great version of Fairport Convention’s “Where the Time Goes”. It would be interesting to see Jessica with a band behind her to enrichen the sound.
It was good to see the Gov at almost capacity again. People coming out to support live music is a wonderful thing.
Robben Ford is a guitarist who hails from California and has been around since the 60’s. Robben plays American blues, jazz and rock and has five Grammy awards to his name so no slouch when it comes to guitar playing.
Arriving on stage 10 minutes early, Robben and band, Doug Belote on drums, Andy Hess on bass and Jovan Quallo on sax, quietly eased into the first number, Good Times, from the 2018 album Made to Last. And so it was for the evening, the music doing the talking. Although Robben is the “star” of the band, he often sat back and let the other musicians play. Jovan on sax was a crowd favourite, getting an arousing cheer when he was “let loose”. Sometimes it was just the subtle groove of Andy’s bass and the quiet sound of Doug on the drums, while Robben stood to the side and looked on.
Words, as in speaking, were kept to a minimum. The occasional “thank you”, a “can I please a tequila” directed to the bar and after one song a “that is a good song. I know I wrote it” got a hearty laugh from the audience.
Songs covering his long career were played, like What I Haven’t Done, Metal Man and Black Night while White Rock Beer and Go got an airing from his 2021 album Pure. Cotton Candy was a standout song. All the while, Robben’s playing was smooth, but at times blistering, tight and gentle. He could and did cover all bases.
Interestingly, the band started a new song Sentimental Mode towards the end of the set, before Robben quietly muttered to the band “let’s not play that tonight” and fired into Tangle with Ya. A shame as from reports out of Melbourne, Sentimental Mode is a beautiful track. Tangle with Ya however was a grand finale to the show.
The band were quick to return for an encore with an extremely short, by comparison to the other songs played on this evening, but very lively, Fool’s Paradise.
Robben Ford is an outstanding guitarist, a master with the guitar and on a cold damp Adelaide night, Robben Ford and his band set the almost sold-out Gov alight.
Robben Ford Trivia: Robben played lead guitar on Rock and Roll Hell and I Still Love You on the KISS album Creatures of the Night.
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