I got a poster up on the wall at home that refers to the wisdom of a Statesman Marcus Cato, who was hanging out back in 234 – 192 BC:
“The best way to keep good acts in memory is to refresh them with new.”
With that in mind I responded to Pat Cannon’s gig texts and headed over to his Thursday night session in MB Slattery’s to hear a new funky blues, rock and latinesque soul band called Hot New Machine.
Hot New Machine is a busy three piece collaboration featuring a much travelled young New Yorker and two mint fresh Dubliners on Bass and Percussion.
In accordance with Marcus Cato’s philosophy, Hot New Machine do provide a refreshing blend of very approachable tight, funky, soulful music infused with total conviction and Bradley’s musical observations in South America for five years and Spain for three, singing many of his own original’s in melodic Portuguese.
All the favours were well represented in the jubilant and jovial version of Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing at the start of the set with its latinesque jive on Bradley’s Fender Stratocaster and vocals driven by melodic bass and percussive warmth.
This difference in style and approach and willingness to embrace the wider world is infectious and upbeat and full of enjoyment for the audience and capable of igniting the dancing G spot for several gyratory young ladies in post coital bliss around the front of the stage.
Bradley’s subtle and complex picking has developed from his original inspiration Eric Clapton into an R&B cool sounding groove full of Brazilian and Spanish journeyman dalliances giving the impression of someone having the time of his life finding his own groove driven along by an Irish rhythm section full of youthful, catchy, poppy, and glitterball funky vigour that could just as easily provide a backdrop for Alex Turner. Bassman the man with the plan shuffles about the stage, interlocking Bradley for some slash and burn adding plenty of visual excitement.
Hot New Machine have a spirited, bounciness to their performance, and the atmosphere is full of energy and multi lingual exchanges with the rapidly apparent multi national audience characteristic of the new Irish social scene engaging enthusiastically.
Hard working live music promoter Pat Cannon is moving his promotions to a new redesigned Lower Deck in September with gigs from the following lined up: from Full Circle, Bree with encouraging plans in the pipeline to bring in another International Blues Artist in collaboration with JJ Smyth’s Blues promoter Barry O Reilly.
The Lower Deck sounds even if my previous visit there is a very smudgy recollection of being in a reduced state of awareness at a Planxty style session in ’75 moving bipedally around a dark venue amongst a room full of my peers resembling in hindsight a tribe of white handed gibbons.
Mick Kenny aka MTW
