It’s a trip down memory lane for this one with the twentieth anniversary of arguably Rouse’s finest work, ‘1972’. Thoughts go back to a fantastic show in Dingwalls in 02 and then the 1972 tour itself in 04 where I think he played the whole album through that time too.
This was obviously a fantastic show. When you have this quality of songs then that’s half the battle done. The other half is putting together a hot band to perform them and that is exactly what we got.
What can I say it’s all killer, the band are great, Rouse’s voice sounds great and each musician has enough musical space to shine throughout especially the bass on a lot of these songs.
The crowd are really up for this providing background vocals to many of the songs. That is apart from the usual morons at the back who insisted on talking throughout. It never ceases to amaze me why people go to gigs and then proceed to have a conversation throughout. Take it outside.
Minor quibble over, once the run through of 1972 is complete Rouse temporarily dismisses the band to play a couple of tracks released in 1972 from other artists. So we have a fine version of Paul Simon’s ‘me and Julio down by the schoolyard’ and a hushed version of Pink Moon to follow.
The band are back and we are treated to a handful of songs from other Rouse albums and it was certainly nice to hear a couple from the equally excellent ‘Nashville’ album.
Many people will know I love to discover and hear new music from new artists rather than buying remasters or reissues but the familiarity tonight of these beloved songs was pretty special.
Keep on pop rockin’ y’all