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When Bands & Small Venues Rocked! 26/11/15


"Yet another from 'LLSTW' - the storming 'I'd Rather Die In Vain' - gave us a full house on the genre bingo card - Jimi's Blue Plaque just up the road in W1 was no doubt reverberating to this nod to his legend. It was then back to the Blues and to their 'Love Vol. 1' EP and 'What's On Your Mind' - a track that not only JD has performed before using Duanne Allman's Les Paul but also many would think is a Blues standard and a cover. Praise indeed. The 'Big Country' style opening riff of 'Long May You Sail' lead into another SIMO epic from 'LLSTW' and a bonus ball with Progressive rock overtones - the togetherness of this three-piece never being more apparent now than during their entire set. The prog flag continued to fly with 'Off at 11' again from 'Love Vol. 1' plus I suppose the obligatory but great drum solo from Abrashoff. There's no doubt that JD's voice has a certain 'Cocker' about it - so the opening guitar salvo to 'With a Little Help From My Friends' made the proverbial hairs on the back of the neck stand up. This necessitated banter later as to what was the better cover - Janis or Joe? One thing for sure was that SIMO nailed it! And there was room from one encore - 'Evil' from their first self-titled album - doffing their caps to Zep with its 'How Many More Times' type riff which - par for the course - proceeded into a jam - but rounded off a wonderful evening that transported us back in time - when bands and small venues rocked. Given the forthcoming release of "LLSTW' - you have to question whether we will ever be able to witness this intimacy again."

Read the rest of AJ's SIMO review here or go to our photo gallery here.

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