Back to the 12 bars…

It was a while since I saw Ondra and his harpriders (Ondřej Žlábek – harp, voc; Jiří Maršíček – gr,voc; Jan Svorník – b; Marcus Jurkovič – dr.), infact I’m not even sure what’s the bands official name is as for today? In many ways that’s not even important, I can get to that later. What is important and also a little remarkable is what has happened to the band since our last get together. Make no mistakes, we got what we came for, a three set concert filled with the sounds from the very roots of blues, a mixture made of old blues classics and the band’s own compositions. What was for me a positive experience was in the way the music was performed. The band clearly has found more self confidence in what they are carrying out, the individuals have all got more space in their doings, everything is not anymore built around OJ and his excellent harp, which was not a bad thing, but now they sound even more like a whole group, connected together to give you some of the old 12 bar. The best example of this was probably Jiří Maršíček with his guitar solos that took us to completely different spheres than what we have heard before. In fact one of the highlights from last night was the old jazz standard, St. James Infirmary Blues, that started off in a very slow tempo with Jiří on the vocals with his guitar, building up to a musical inferno with some absolutely amazing guitar and harp solos, and it also got the well deserved ovation from the audience of Malého Glena. I really hope the band keeps this tune in their repertoire!

 

Now remember, everything above is only my opinion, like always when writing a review it’s the feelings of one person, the writer. Yes, you talk to the people at the gig, their thoughts about the concert etc. but what you put down in writing is all your own impressions. So I might be totally wrong about my conclusion from last night, but… Wrong or not, I will go and see these guys again!