Live Review: Rattlin' Bones Blackwood, Danny Walsh, Reservoir Dogs

As the #11 tram comes to a shuddering stop, there’s a dull roar coming from End Of The Line Bar just across the way. Tonight’s show is part of the True North Arts Festival, a celebration of all things artistic in the northern suburbs of Thornbury, Preston and Reservoir.

Weed (of Weed & The Killers) stands beneath his white cowboy hat, all 70-odd years of him shredding his keyboard like Jerry Lee Lewis. He’s a last-minute ring-in for tonight’s line-up and, in tailoring his countrified set to a blues-hungry audience, he gains plenty of fans. The next band, an a cappella outfit aptly named Reservoir Dogs, bring plenty of artistic licence to proceedings. Led by Dylan Lewis (yep, that Dylan Lewis), the collective run through a quick set of covers by artists including Michael Jackson, Queens Of The Stone Age, Eric Clapton and Muse. Dressed in matching black and white suits and dog masks, they’re gone before their shtick gets stale, although there’s a sense that, under their regular guise of Manchoir, there’d be plenty more fun to be had.

Weed & The Killers come out for another set and by now there’s an eclectic combination of regular End Of The Line Bar patrons and True North Arts Festival folk in attendance MC Matt Frederick from The Juke Joint on PBS welcomes tonight’s organiser Danny Walsh to the stage. Walsh starts with a cover of R L Burnside’s Wish I Was In Heaven Sitting Down and from this point there’s no stopping him. Walsh’s band ensures he never gets too loose, except of course when he climbs to the top of the bar, percussion in hand, trying to convince a few women (also on top of the bar) to give the tambourine a try.

Crowd warmed up, Rattlin’ Bones Blackwood arrives on stage on his own, and proceeds to make the racket of a ten-strong outfit. Guitar, bass drum, snare and vocals are all provided by the one man, similar to Bob Log III, and the opening of John Lee Hooker’s Boom Boom ensures those still in the bar remain until the end.