Have you ever walked by posters in your city for years with the intention of hooking up with a bands performance and between one thing and another, time passes by, anti social work shifts prevail and then when you do get to finally see the band years later its like, wow what have I been missing here.
Promoter Pat Cannon had sent me a text alerts earlier that he had a night of no nonsense rhythm & blues in store in Rathmines and so it was when I walked into the Madison Bar and felt the insinuating groove of Blues Up Front reverberating around the venue. With Pat’s typical customer care and professional approach we had a table and chairs set up within seconds of arriving that gave us a premium view of the musicians on stage.On Stage Joe O Keeffe on vocals, Pat Kilty with a vintage red Stratocastor guitar through a Session amp, Peter Cleary on Bass, Dave Gorman on Drum and all around us in the Madison a joyous and upbeat crowd with a 40th birthday party dynamic off to one side contributing to the ambiance.
Pat Kilty has incorporated his influences well into a hot, fluid and inventive style and tone of his own with the great King Trilogy, Albert, BB and Freddie mapped down to perfection seamlessly within, the kind of player who knows how to put a smile on your face.Blues Up Front play electric Chicago urban blues with a tinge of Southern fried soul and they deliver a blow out bar room rhythm & blues performance that had the shapely punters singing, dancing and indulging in aerobatic air guitar histrionics on the dance floor in front of the stage from the get go.
Blues Up Front have the timeless essential blueprint for rocking rhythm & blues, pumping bass lines, thumping drum rhythms and guitar riffs and bottleneck phrases flying off Pat Kilty’s fretboard like sparks while Joe O Keeffe’s explosively dirty canned heat vocal soars on top with authority while he prances around the stage like a Hell’s Angel doing gatekeeper in a boozy barroom roadhouse off Highway 61.These are Muddy Waters musical grandchildren and they nail down the old favourites with respect and enthusiasm with tunes like, Hot Spot, High Cost Of Love, Hoochie Coochie Man, Southern Man, Blues Before Sunrise, Shake Your Money Maker, Goin Down, Love Me With A Feeling all demonstrating a passion for the roots of the blues tradition and determined to leave the audience satisfied.
Joe O Keeffe has a warm and winning vocal presence on stage with a blue heart and a rock solid soul, and can lift the roof when the occasion demands with a towering raging vocal and a full throttle delivery on one of my classic rock favourites Wishing Well and a commanding collaboration with the audience on Looking Back.
“I was looking back to see
If she was looking back
To see if I was looking back at her”
Blues Up Front have only recently reassembled for a few gigs and after a holiday break in July will review their future live performance schedules. Blues Up Front also featured another notable musician, Thin Lizzy’s Brian Downey on Drums for many years and Pat informed me afterwards that Brian is touring with Gary Moore at the moment. I wasn’t long after a delightful Indian meal of lamb and coconut spices next door in the Monsoon so I was thirsty when I arrived and when the barman misheard my request for an orange juice and supplied me with a cool pint of Coors it complemented the hot rhythms coming from within and the powerhouse rhythms without.
Blues Up Front have got a rhythm section in Peter Cleary and Dave Gorman, that takes possession of the ball confidently allowing Pat Kilty to run with it and deliver big time with his well informed scorching technique on the fret board that’s well paced, full of muscle, sounding as vintage as BB King’s Live At The Regal and as fresh as tomorrow morning.