The Governor Hindmarsh. 27 Sep 2014
It was a perfect end to a perfect day. The temperature tipped the high end of the 20s, I’d spent most of the day outside, chilled out with friends and a few bevies, and to cap it all off, a brilliant show put on by the incredible Ash Grunwald at The Gov. Life is sweet!
The evening got off to a good start with Ian Collard, who’s building quite a name for himself in blues circles. Performing solo and playing guitar, stomp box and a mean blues harp, Ian certainly set the right mood for Ash to follow. Ian’s style sits well within the deep-south, old school blues spectrum, with a meaty sound along similar lines to the likes of Sonny Boy Williamson and John Lee Hooker, and he was certainly a very worthy opener!
As The Gov continued to fill (with a healthy proportion of people enjoying the balmy evening breezes outside), it was soon time for the main man to take the stage, and immediately he proceeded to show just how relevant old school blues can be to a modern world! One thing I love about seeing Ash Grunwald (and I’ve seen him many a time over the years), is that you never know what kind of show he’ll put on, be it with a band, with perhaps a guest or two, or completely solo. The latter was to be order of the day for this gig, with Ash joined only by his Gibson Les Paul, a bass drum, and a Marshall (plus a couple more amps!), and of course an incredible dose of warm guitar tone, literally filling the room with sound.
Pulling a rich bass end from his guitar, Ash demonstrated his mastery over his instrument, with plenty of ballsy raucousness adding to the fat tone. He played a bunch of different tunes from across his catalogue, including some newies too, and as always took plenty of ad hoc requests from the crowd. He brought out a resonator guitar, which had an even more depthy tone for a number of tunes, and really showed the crowd how raw and gutsy blues music can be. An earth-shattering bass groove underlined a version of ‘Crossroads’ played on lap steel, and favourites like ‘Raw’ (which Ash was initially apprehensive to play without a drummer, but pulled it off like a pro), ‘Skywriter’, and ‘Walking’ had the crowd going mad! Ash was joined by Ian Collard on his harp for a few numbers, including a cover of Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’ (even a crappy pop song can be made cool by blues-ifying it!), and he even invited half the audience on stage (including a dude evoking the spirit of Axl Rose) to dance. To end proceedings on the main set, Ash gave in to the crowd and played ‘Dolphin Song’, much to the delight of everyone in the room. After a short break, Ash returned to the stage for an encore that continued the blues high, bringing the evening to a riotous end. Definitely a sensational gig! Ash is currently working on a new album too, so hopefully it won’t be too long between drinks, and we’ll be treated to another journey into the blues real soon.
Luke Balzan
When: Closed
Where: The Gov
Bookings: Closed
