One of the smaller venues in Nottingham, the Bodega is a friendly, atmospheric place. Well laid-out, it offers a tiny seating area, a well-stocked bar and good sound. It’s exactly the sort of venue the country seems to be losing at an unprecedented rate, so it is heartening to arrive on a wet and windy Wednesday evening to find it comfortably full. With a bill featuring two phenomenal acts, it’s clear that the demise of live music has been vastly overstated and the varied audience are treated to a musical display that guarantees to have them trooping out the next time either band rolls through town.
With a sound that roams freely across genre boundaries, the Rainbreakers deliver a short, powerful set that sees the band airing tracks from the excellent Face to face album, although the wide-ranging tracklist still finds time to pull ain’t nothin’ goin on from the blood not brass EP. Opening with the aptly-titled heavy Soul, the band put in a sparkling performance that sees the Rainbreakers continue to make good on the explosive promise of their recorded work. With the Bodega comfortably full (and still filling up), the band pull out an impossibly good cover of Gary Clarke Jr.’s When my train pulls in, a track that features some truly astonishing lead guitar work from Charlie, leaving the bulk of the audience’s jaws hanging somewhere around their knees. A phenomenal band in every sense of the word, the Rainbreakers are one hell of a tough act to follow and the only possible criticism is that their set is way too short. An increasingly essential band on the live circuit, miss the Rainbreakers at your peril for they are destined for bigger venues.
The same could be said for Wille and the bandits, who have been honing their craft for some time and who only seem to have gotten better along the way. With a brand-new album in paths (and if you’ve not heard it, be sure so to do), Wille and the Bandits are playing for keeps tonight and, from the moment they hit the stage, it’s clear that they will offer no quarter. The band are exceptionally tight and, having opened with Victim of the night (complete with the apt opening lyric I’m feeling like a hurricane…) they hit hard with the cruelly distorted Make Love. Placing the blinding new album front and centre is an inspired move, not least because, having had it on constant rotation of late, the songs feel like old friends and when the band launch into a heavy, slide-infused find my way, the crowd are well and truly ensnared. An utterly engaging act, Wille and the bandits know exactly how to structure a set to get the most from their material and. with the temperature reaching spontaneous combustion levels, Wille and his band sensibly take things down a notch as he shifts to the lap steel guitar for the tender watch you grow (written some four and a half years ago for his baby daughter). With a psychedelic feel, watch you grow is a song that is only enhanced in its live incarnation (thanks in part to Andrew Naumann’s subtle work on the Djembe), recalling Dan Patlansky filtered through Revolver-era Beatles. You can’t hit the lap steel, of course, without tipping the nod to Peter Green and this the band do with a stunning rendition of Black Magic Women, much to the untrammeled delight of the audience who, aside from the occasional whoop, remain respectfully quiet throughout. However, it is not Peter Green, but an original track that provides the evening’s most sublime guitar moment, as the band unveil another newbie in the form of judgement day. A superlative display, it cements the view that Wille is one of the UK’s foremost guitar talents (something already noted by Joe Bonamassa), and his time is surely coming. In case the audience are in any doubt, an irresistibly funky keep it on the downlow gets hips shaking as one as bassist Matthew Brooks lays down a seriously addictive groove.
A stripped-down acoustic set features a delightful Mammon (from 2012’s Break free), but it’s the insanely addictive chorus of four million days that proves to be the show stopper. With a bowed, five-string, upright bass providing a dark drone (augmented by deftly-triggered samples), the song emerges to fill the room and, when the Gilmour-esque lead break (played on the lap-steel) emerges, the audience’s appreciation of this masterly display knows no bounds. From there on, the show careers towards its end with stunning speed. The Levellers-esque one way has a huge chorus that you just have to shout along to, the band engaging in a guitar dual that, once more, threatens to stun the audience into submission and yet, through it all, it’s all done with such good humour and humility that the crowd never feels less than an essential part of the show. It’s the mark of a great act and the close attention of the audience bears witness to how they hang on the band’s every action.
It’s hard to pick a highlight when the evening is jam packed with them. The moment that Matthew brought out the double bass; the epic guitar battle (narrated with considerable flair by drummer Andrew); the gorgeous, liquid, lap-steel work of Wille… each element stood out and yet, at the same time, was part of a whole that managed to be even better than the sum of its parts. If you’re looking for one of the best bands in the UK now, then look no further, because WIlle and the bandits more than fit the bill.
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