The Revival Tour at Shepherd’s Bush
The Revival Tour – Shepherd’s Bush Empire – 15 October 2011
Featuring: Dave Hause, Chuck Ragan, Dan Andriano and Brian Fallon
Words by Eric Cannon / Photos by Marcus Maschwitz
It’s been a long wait for The Revival Tour, my anticipation for this show was at a breaking point the day it was announced and the excitement has been building up like no other show before. The atmosphere inside the venue is like nothing I have ever experienced before, it’s what I would imagine it would of been like to see Clapton unplugged at MTV or Metallica with a full orchestra. To even begin to try an explain in detail would probably never end up doing the show enough justice and all I can suggest is that you experience first hand.
The night starts out with Dave Hause. I have to admit that I had no idea who Dave was before hand but from the moment he unleashed his voice he had me hooked. He has this intense rawness to his vocals that just sits so perfectly with the acoustic tones. Honestly I had a proper man crush on his voice. From mid way through Dave’s set I lost all sense of time the rest of his set and that of the others just swept by way too quick. The atmosphere was just to overwhelming to be sidetracked by anything other that what was going on in front of me.
Next up was the man behind the whole revival tour, the manliest man on earth, Mr Chuck Ragan. I think everyone secretly has a crush on Chuck and the love shown for him tonight is well deserved. He powers through an amazing set including a goosebump inducing duet with Dave Hause.
The more I see Chuck play live the more and more I get in to everything he does. His music, both Hot Water Music and his solo material, is slowly becoming the soundtrack to my life.
Alkaline Trio are an amazing band and Dan Andriano brings there songs to life tonight, within seconds of his first notes he has the entire venue in a sing-along. Classic trio material mixed with his own material makes for an interesting set and weirdly it’s his own material that really sticks out for me tonight.
Brian Fallon takes to the stage to thunderous roar from the crowd. ‘Here’s Looking At You Kid’ has never sounded so good as it did tonight.
Brian is running on all cylinders tonight, he is such an entertainer and literally has everyone in the palm of his hands. By this time the atmosphere just builds and builds to the point where you just feel lost in it all.
I could go on and on but would never be able to capture the essence of this show. It was magical, a night you would never ever forget and personally one of my favourite shows ever. Big thank you to Chuck Ragan and his wife for putting on such a good show.
