Larkin Poe plus support from Son Little

In an almost full Institute tonight, a new name to us, Son Little, captured a lot of hearts and ears, with a confident, charismatic performance with his funky soul/blues, songs sung with a fantastic voice, delivered with power and control and an unusual guitar sound. Not a beginner, having released five albums, and collaborated with some well-known names, like Mavis Staples, but seemed bowled over with the reaction of the room, and so he should. He went down really well, impressive stuff.

It’s been a couple of years since we got to see this very talented Grammy Award-winning sister duo, Larkin Poe. And right away it was noticeable that the production was larger, with very nice flower-based backdrop and plants planted about the stage, reflecting the title of their latest album, ‘Bloom’, nice touch. The Lovell sisters take the stage before treating the crowd to a night of southern blues, so confident are they that the opening four songs were from ‘Bloom’. The pace is fast and furious, the guitar playing as you would expect from these two is off the chart, and the harmonies are impeccable. After one of my own favourites, a thunderous, ‘Bad Spell’, there was a nice twist as all the band joined Rebecca and Megan at a single microphone in an acoustic bluegrass section, which fits in well as they have just this week released an acoustic EP version of some of ‘Bloom’. It was amazing. With a cheeky version of ‘Mad As A Hatter’ and concluding with ‘Devil Music’, which contained references to AC/DC, ZEPPELIN and OZZY OSBOURNE, before going back to full electric with a blast of, ‘War Pigs’, to large roar from the Brummie crowd, nice.

From that point there was no letting up, just full-on thumping rock n blues, with Rebecca really showing her vocal range on ‘If God Is a Woman’. These ladies are a force of nature onstage and really bring their songs to another level when they play live. Awesome.

Photos by Geoff Griffe
Review by Jenny Griffe