Do you love hot guitar-driven blues rock? Do you like to see two guitarists, completely engaged with the act of live performance, both adept but distinctively different from each other, playing into each other, trading lead and rhythm parts between songs, opening their structures up into extended, propulsive jams that build and build and peak then sail along at some delirious sky-level plateau for ten minutes then hook back into the groove and build and build and build some more, taking you to an even higher plane, which angles upwards into the sun until you fucking explode?
Do you especially love it when they're clearly totally enjoying this process, too, grinning and leaning into it, where you can tell they are doing this 100% because they LOVE it?
If so, go see Dude Cervantes and the Panchos this Friday, March 27th, at LanaLou's, then go see them again as Blues for Greeny at the Rickshaw. Then if you can get to Nanaimo and Duncan and Powell River and Roberts Creek... you get the idea: see as many of these shows as you can!
That becomes particularly imperative if you also love "The Green Manalishi (with the Two-Pronged Crown)". (Goddamn what a great song that is). That was their show closer tonight and they knocked it out of the park. I was very happy my camera had maxed out its storage so I could just dance!
And make no mistake: whether it is Dude Cervantes and the Panchos or Blues for Greeny, it's the same band; the former does originals, the latter does covers. I only saw the latter tonight, but I am utterly confident that tomorrow (the Dude Pancho set) is going to be even greater, because as much fun as the band was clearly having laying into the blues tonight, it's gonna mean all the more for them when it's their own songs they're playing, eh?
Extra treat if you like to see shit-hot FEMALE blues-rock guitarists. They seem to be hard to come by -- lots of great female vocalists and songwriters, but when it comes to shit-hot female guitarists in the blues vein, so far I've only seen two, Ellen McIlwaine and Sue Foley. Loved both, but Nicole Cerminara was more intense than either of 'em tonight out in White Rock. She's from Ontario. She's not a regular member of the band -- is just filling in for one person who couldn't make it on the tour; and she has no other gigs out here for the time being, nothing else I can point you towards. But you have abundant chances to see her on this tour, especially if you're on Vancouver Island or up the Sunshine Coast; this band is doing justice to touring BC, driving around old-school with their t-shirts and vinyl in back, hitting a new town every night (except Sunday, so far!).
TBH I liked her leads a bit better than Cervantes', but he's great too!
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Even though the trek to White Rock is an ordeal, I'm so glad I went. The Beer Shack had stopped serving food, so dinner was a fuckin' nanaimo bar that I had in my backpack, which kinda sucks, because I spent almost two hours on buses and Skytrains to get there and I was kind of hungry. Then it was another hour and a half to get home.
But I have zero regrets (and two new records and a t-shirt: they have merch). Sometimes the pleasures you earn mean more.
Oh, by the way, I wrote this for the Straight, and I shot this clip tonight, from the second half of their set. It was even better live.
Having had a very busy week last week, musically, I had, in fact, planned to take this weekend off from concert going, but Dude Cervantes has completely altered that plan. No regrets there either.
BC tour dates (nothing in Victoria it seems!). One or both bands play each night. Don't worry which, just go!
Mar 27 - Vancouver, BC @lanalous
Mar 28 - Vancouver, BC w/ BFG @rickshawtheatre
Mar 29 - Nanaimo, BC w/ BFG @thequeensnanaimo
Mar 30 - Duncan, BC @duncanshowroom *
Apr 1 - Powell River, BC @carlsonloft *
Apr 2 - Roberts Creek, BC @robertscreeklegion219 *
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