LIVE AT GRUTA 77 - Kent Steedman and The Tubular Greens (Dock)
Stumbled over this in the Madrid branch of Europe's biggest chain of music stores (FNAC) - so I immediately went around the corner and bought it at a "Ma and Pa" independent shop. You probably won't have to go as far to procure yours, especially if you're in Australia with Reverberation doing the distribution. This is a generously-appointed (CD and DVD in a fold-out digipak) slab o' live music from Celibate Rifles guitarist Kent Steedman and his Spanish band, and it rocks regally.
There are 16 songs on the album and, save for two originals, they're covers from the likes of the Saints, the New Christs, the Sunnyboys, Radio Birdman, the Tatts and Asteroid B612. Everyone knows Spain is now the Rock and Roll Capital of the World so there's a sense of taking coals to Newcastle in trotting out these tunes in sangria-stained nightclubs, but even the Spaniards must recognise them as bona fide classics if they're going to sell this stuff in multinational chain stores. Which probably also makes The Tubular Greens the best-informed tribute band in the world.
Kelvin and his comprades do a first class job, allowing for the odd re-phrasing and mangled lyric (but singer Miguel Pardo's English is still way better than my pathetic attempts at Spanglish - "Uno canya por favor" anyone?) In fact, the Tubular take on "Stranded" is comparable with the original with a breathtakingly solid wall of sound in evidence. There's a nice piece of guitar embellishment to "Hindu Gods of Love", of which Mark Taylor might approve.
Kent obviously taught the boys "Spirits" so well that they could sit in for the Rifles if the two bands find themselves in the same venue with the Sydneysiders in need of an en masse visit to the gents.
The Tubular Greens are obviously a more democratic outfit than Franco's Spain with the star attraction never overpowering his bandmates. I had the odd moment where I wanted to hear more of his supercharged, saturated lead work but I'll settle for the raunch opf what's dished up. With music this good happening, it might just be enough to deter the Basques from separating.
There's probably not many songs you don't know on either the audio disc or the DVD, the latter a fairly straight effort that's devoid of post-production embellishments but dripping in white noise and sweaty rock and roll. The extra cuts are an instro, "Greens song", and one with words, "Tsunami", and they hold up OK. Does their inclusion foretell a full-length studio effort in the future? We can live in hope.
The operative word here is Fun. Crank it up and go mental.
–
The Barman
1/2
