We’re back at La Belle Angele in Edinburgh tonight to catch that rocking, high-voltage Canadian bluesman Anthony Gomes, along with Chris Whited on drums/backing vocals and Jacob Mreen on bass/backing vocals. There’s no support band tonight, so the trio casually saunter onto the stage to the strains of AC/DC‘s “Long Way To The Top” to loud applause from a packed-out venue. He’s certainly outgrown Bannermans across the road where he played last time!
The band are touring on the back of last year’s new album Praise the Loud, but first up we get a double-header from the High Voltage Blues record. They kick off with the swaggering rocker “Painted House” before heading straight into “Fur Covered Handcuffs” with its Eliminator-era ZZ Top vibe. It’s a stunning start to the night.
There is no let-up as we dive into a number of tracks from the new album. Standouts include the bouncy “Blame It on Rock and Roll” which sees Anthony and Jacob using up every inch of the stage. I’m honestly not sure who threw the best pose tonight, as both of them were absolutely going for it.
It’s not all full-throttle, though. We get a bit of “slow time” with the B.B. King-inspired “Come Down” from the Peace, Love & Loud Guitars album. The guitar work here is sublime. Chris is cruising along in the rear on drums and Jacob is easily one of the smoothest bass players I’ve seen in a while. It’s a beautifully paced song, with Anthony chatting to the crowd about B.B. being his hero.
One of the highlights for me was “Praise the Loud”, a real rock-infused blues belter. You can see why he says he’s “too rock for the blues crowd and too blues for the rock crowd,” but personally, I think he’s the perfect blend of both. It turns out they don’t have Tesco supermarkets over in the States, as he set a special scene to meet his “White Trash Princess” — another ZZ Top-grooved rocker. I’ll never look at Tesco the same way again, and his recurring jokes about the shop throughout the night had us all laughing.
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I always find blues bands a struggle to photograph because of groove-laden songs like “Blues-a-fied”; you just want to dance, which isn’t easy when you’re trying to make the band look good. We then got a triple bill from the new album: the early AC/DC-styled “True That”, the hypnotic “Netflix and Chill” with a rhythm courtesy of Chris and Jacob, and the heavy “Rock and Roll Bluesman”. Just quality stuff all round.
The peak of the set for me is the song that first made me sit up and notice Mr Gomes: “The Whiskey Made Me Do It”. If there’s a song that makes me want to dance around the living room after a few glasses of the strong stuff, it’s this one. It has it all: a killer rhythm section not unlike Double Trouble and a guitarist who can lay down clean riffs or dirty licks with that classic gravel-throated vocal.
The band finished the evening with a medley cover of “Whole Lotta Love” with a touch of “Mississippi Queen” thrown in for good measure. What a night. It went by so fast, featuring amazing songs played by a band clearly having a cracking time. Anthony’s banter was funny, and he spoke about how it took him years to finally play what he wanted rather than trying to please everyone. It’s clearly paying off. He also mentioned the importance of good teachers, specifically the guitar tutor who inspired him to “write what you know”—which led to “The Whiskey Made Me Do It”, a late addition to the album written and recorded in a single day.
The guys came out to the merch stand afterwards to sign gear and pose with fans for free, ensuring everyone went home happy. I headed out after packing the cameras away with a smile on my face and a bounce in my step. Cheers to Anthony Gomes for my first gig of the year – it’s going to take some beating.
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Photos by Gary Cooper
