Music: Lampchop – The Rescue Rooms Nottingham

Having never heard of the band called ‘Lambchop’ previously, I attended their gig at the Rescue Rooms venue with an open attitude, receptive to whatever musical atmosphere I would be immersed into this night… and I wasn’t disappointed.

Frontman of the band, Kurt Wagner, in his trademark baseball cap on and his electric guitar, began playing what I would describe as country and western music with a modern twist. Melodic, subtle and progressive, Kurt’s guitar was backed up by Tony Crow’s classical melodies on the grand piano and by an accomplished bass player who’s name I can’t find but from which not a bum bass note was detected.

Kurt’s deep and insightful lyrics were delivered with the use of a vocoder for an intriguing electronic, robotic texture which certainly worked well for my ears. This trilogy of musicians gently played what I would describe as soft and dreamlike alternative country songs at which the whole audience, including myself, were seemingly spellbound, waiting on every song to finish before erupting into rapturous applause. Their sounds had the great ability to captivate and, in a soothing fashion, allowed my mind to unwind as it was whisked-off along on these dreamlike waves of lovely vibrations. Very relaxing and beautiful.

As Lambchop’s set progressed so did their tempo as more and more of the audience could be seen to be increasing their swaying with the beats. I always like a little bit of crowd interaction when I go to see a gig and Kurt and Tony certainly engaged their audience on a number of occasions in rapturous laughter with jokes from their native Nashville, Tennessee.

The biggest laugh of all came at the end of their set when the band suddenly waved goodbye after completing a closing song and attempted to leave the Rescue Rooms stage through one of the stage doors to their left. When one didn’t open, Kurt tried the other, and when that, too, was seemingly locked a titter of laughter in the crowd soon became roaring laughter… “Well, that’s a first for me, ladies and gents… I’ve never been locked on stage before!” Regardless of the actual pre-encore departure from the stage being unsuccessful, ‘Lambchop’ returned to their positions, picked up their instruments and proceeded with the encore which went down a treat.

Their melodic, soft, and somewhat unique style of music certainly sent me off home with a rejuvenated sense of well-being which is a great quality that good music possesses. A great gig.

By James Toomey