The Doldrums + Freddy James Band, Live at The Ambersham Arms. 20/9/14

The Birmingham band Duke are good mates of mine, so good that last weekend I went down with them, staying with the band in Essex and taking the coach down to London, to see them support Steve Craddock of Ocean Colour Scene and Paul Weller fame.
First up was The Doldrums, yet another two piece who play loud riffy blues inspired rock and roll. featuring a man with mutton chops and one very sexy lady on drums*.  Obvious comparisons include the White Stripes and Table Scraps.  Not to be confused with the Canadian electronica producer. Unfortunately I only caught a little bit of their set  so I can't say a huge amount but I enjoyed what I saw. I had a little chat with them later too, nice guys.
www.facebook.com/doldrums66
www.reverbnation.com/thedoldrums66

 

Next up was the Freddy James Band. The FJB play the sort of blues rock that would be perfectly at home at The Robin 2. Freddy James is an impressive guitarist, who evokes The great Stevie Ray Vaughn in style and sartorial sense, and did a whole load of guitar shredding in his small set.  His rhythm section were equally accomplished musicians. Which is why I don't understand why they had a man on percussion as well, tapping away on various different sized hand drums. Most of the time I could barely hear him over the rest of the band, and considering what an effort it must be to carry all those drums around, I fail to see what he is adding to the band. Worse still he was dressed in a Slazenger polo and trackies, looking like he might be the sort of guy who could fix your boiler**. This isn't to say that he made the band worse, in fact either way the Freddy James band are a great blues rock group.











watch part of the set here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNoHHAYeebk

www.facebook.com/freddyjamesband

* Sorry if that sounds sexist
**Sorry