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Folkways in Lisbon

As I am habitually resigned to the sweating, black-painted walls of most London venues, instead sitting with a mammoth G&T in-hand, as the sun set over the wide-mouthed river Tagus, perhaps predisposed me to review favourably this gig by Folkways in Lisbon.

“It’s only a cover band” I hear you cry. Well indeed. But any performer who manages to inspire this, needs to be written about:

[youtuber vimeo=’http://vimeo.com/300050423′]

You may be able to pick out All Along the Watchtower behind the enthusiastic guitaristry.

The other surprising thing I can share is the rise and rise of the cover-band festival scene in the UK! How many of those do you think there are every summer?

I found at least 8 weekend-long events listed for 2019, and it’s a great chance to share some pun-tastic tribute names:

At the dubiously named Tribfest, you can see the Antarctic MonkeysBadness and Totally Tina, whose promo video has to be seen!

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfC4m0AL_ME&feature=youtu.be’]

My question, why don’t they play a TT song in the video?

At Glastonbudget, you can sway along to Oasish, who earned this fantastic paean of praise: “Yeah, he’s alright man!” – Liam Gallagher (when asked what he thought of Oasish lead singer, Paul).

And based on the video for The Big Fake Festival, I know where I’ll be asking the editor to go to next year! I can’t wait to see the Really Hot Chili Peppers and The Fu Fighters.

That was all a bit exciting, and I return now to Folkways:

In their favour:

  • Imaginative and effective use of loop machine to channel a multi-instrumental ambience suited to stadium rock
  • Impressive mimicking of the unique voices of Edward Louis Severson III of Pearl Jam and Dave Matthews, especially for a Portuguese.
  • Genuinely creative guitar solos and atmospheric psy-jamming with loop machine as a lead-in to Superstition
  • Playing the guitar with a bow for the atmospheric opening of In the Air Tonight – watch it through to see the look on Phil’s face when he starts singing, his moody meandering around the stage, and then his explosion all over the drums – makes me wonder if it’s actually a song about constipation

[youtuber youtube=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IeDMnyQzS88′]

Against

  • You can’t make all the studio-remastered classics that you’ve heard 1,000 times sound good in an open-air live performance

In the unlikely event that you need to hire a cover band in Lisbon, I recommend them.

And I’ll see you at Tribfest!