KEVIN BORICH EXPRESS
With The Graham Greene Band & Mike De Velta
Friday 19 August, 2011 – The Charles Hotel, Perth
By Shane Pinnegar
Mike De Velta opened proceedings tonight with a rousing solo set of rootsy blues punctuated by his raw and emotive vocals, acoustic and steel guitars, mouth harp and bare feet bashing away on a stomp box. Endearing and warm, he got the crowd going and dancers on the floor from the start.
Mike de Velta
To say Graham Greene knows his way around a fretboard is quite the understatement – the boy can play!
Peeling blistering licks, huge riffs and soaring solos from his signature range of locally made Ormsby Guitars, GG and his razor sharp rhythm section Jim Awram and Troy Brazier run through a magnificent 45 minutes of highly flammable instrumentals like ‘Old Strings’, ‘Leap of Face’ and ‘Ravens Eye part 1’.
Graham Greene
If Greene is the “Satriani of the South”, then Kevin Borich is surely half Hendrix and half Jeff Beck.
Hugely influential and respected, he has still inexplicably managed to avoid crossover commercial success despite a few brushes with the charts over the years. Borich may be short in stature but he is a giant amongst Australasian guitarists.
A classic power trio, Borich’s Express simply tore through ‘False prophet’ and ‘Heartstarter’, before settling into the Hendrix groove of ‘Strange Imagination’, his half singing, half talking vocals as reminiscent of Jimi as his fiery axework.
‘Angels Hand’ showcased square-jawed bassist Harry Brus, slapping funkily, then Borich introduced ‘Little Red Rooster’ with a tale about seeing The Stones play this song at Auckland town hall “many lives ago”, reminding us how long this veteran has been on the scene for, and the yelps and howls at the appropriate sections of the song remind just how much respect this man inspires.
‘Hellbound Train’, ‘Good To See You Again’ and the gorgeous and lavish ‘Saved By The Blues Again’ all showcased Borich’s prowess, before a run through to the end with ‘In the 21st Century’, ‘Don’t Let Go’ and some more Hendrix-like magic through ‘All Along The Watchtower’.
‘Celebration’, ‘Downtown’ and ‘Goin Somewhere’ closed out a night of astonishing fretwork from these three very differently styled guitarists - De Velta, the soulful and heartfelt roots player, Greene, the maestro of flash and lightning, and Borich, the weaver of magic, churning rock, funk, soul and power together.
Thanks to Decibel Events for the gig!
