Larkin Poe - 4/4/2019

Having seen Larkin Poe a couple of time I was keen to enjoy them again. They tick lots of boxes, feisty Southern Rock, guitar-led, drenched in blues influence, loads of slide guitar, sisters harmonising - what's not to like. The venue, The Fleece, was a first for me and whilst it was a nice building it had the usual disadvantages when its all about standing and drinking rather than sitting and listening. The support were coincidentally also siblings, two brother who were called Foreign Affairs and although they were supporting Larkin Poe on their whole European tour they were as it happens home town boys from Bristol. I enjoyed them, the guitar playing was excellent if occasionally a little over elaborate and the songs were interesting. Larkin Poe just came on and turned the volume and energy up to ten and kept it there for the whole show. It is a pleasure to go to a gig with four early blues covers (Leadbelly, Son House x2 and Robert Johnson) but their original songs are also good. There was of course a number of songs from their new album (Venom and Faith). I particularly enjoyed 'California King' on which Rebecca played the banjo to go with Megan's slide and the same instruments were kept for one of the Son House covers, 'John the revelator'. That's a good combo - banjo and slide. Other than that Rebecca played a mean, down and dirty guitar. One song fetaured a great solo from her followed by a fabulous slide solo from Megan and that was probably the high point of an excellent gig. Also memorable off the new album was 'Beach Blonde Bottle Blues' whilst older stuff that I noted included 'Trouble in Mind' and a great 'Preaching Blues' cover. The encore was a spare version of 'Come on in My Kitchen' and that is a good finish.