It’s only been a few months since Jared James Nichols was in KK’s Steel Mill as support to The Winery Dogs but tonight, he’s at the Midlands’ best venue under his own name with a couple of tasty support acts to ensure people have a great Wednesday night. It’s a night of bluesy tones for those with discerning tastes. But it’s up-tempo blues power (to steal a catchphrase of the headliner) and it’s not just your usual blues fiends who have shown up tonight.
Kicking the night off with their blues-drenched classic rock and hints of Southern tones, it’s Doomsday Outlaw. Having caught them a couple of times with the last time at Camden Rocks in 2019, it’s a welcome chance to find out what’s new. Which is to say not a lot in the best possible way. Plying their wares in a short, sharp set, they plumb the dpeths for a career-spanning set from their early days all the way up to their most recent album. Whilst there looks to have been a couple of personnel changes, vocalist Phil Poole and bassist Indy Chanda are still here and are the ones with the most energy on stage with Poole constantly prowling the stage whilst Chanda plays his thick, groove-filled bass lines with the tenacity you’d find in a punk band. They’re tighter, leaner and a better band than they were (and they were bloody good years ago) so it definitely won’t be four years until the next time.
DeWolff bring some psychedelic vibes to the night with a hint of prog (or a big hint but we’ll get to that). The Dutch trio kick their night off with “Night Train” and whilst it may share a similar name to the best Guns N’ Roses song, that’s where the similarity ends. Hailing from the deep South of The Netherlands, there’s not so much Southern twanging to be found in their set but there’s oodles of groove and bright tones, namely coming from the Hammond. They’re a tight and entertaining band who clearly have a lot of chemistry together and having been playing together for over fifteen years, there’s the mutual trust of when each member can organically push forward or hold back when the right moment calls for it.
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Where the evening turns proggy is on the final song, “Rosita” which is where the band show their chemistry to its fullest. Billed at about sixteen minutes long, this version is closer to twenty, featuring so many different sequences and segments it’s hard to keep track of them all. Regardless, on a musical level, it’s great and whilst some pieces come from nowhere, nothing is out and out extraneous. Objectively, it’s great but I would have preferred it being swapped out for a couple of shorter numbers to get more of their back catalogue. But you have to admire the balls on them for doing that during a support set.
Having released his third album at the start of the year, it seems Jared James Nichols has barely been off the road since. It’s been a number of years since I saw him last and with despite the broken arm and subsequent operation which saw him almost have to call it quits, tonight, he’s not only in fine form but in peak condition. He’s playing better than ever with an enviable ease as if being directed by someone else. As the intro tape of Wolf Jaw’s “Thunder Child” welcomes Nichols and his band onto the stage, they’re welcomed like heroes before the bombastic “Easy Come, Easy Go” starts the next hour and a half of hard rock filtered through a heady dose of blues.
The vast bulk of the dozen-strong setlist is pulled from Nichols’ recent self-titled album with much of it aired tonight. And frankly, why not when it’s the best album in your arsenal. Whilst the argument could be made that it’s a little heavy-handed with only a couple of songs from Black Magic and none from the debut, there’s nothing played that makes you go “I wish he hadn’t played that”. Instead, you’re simply wishing he played more. But what he and his band do play is simply sublime. Like DeWolff, the band knows when to hold back when Nichols wants to extend his solo as he’s caught up in the moment without pretension or he simply wants to noodle with his own material. There’s a sense that what we hear tonight in that regard is for tonight only and the next night will be whatever comes to him.
What’s more interesting about tonight’s set is that the Jared James Nichols material comes roughly in the order it appears in, peppering in the other songs around them with gritty stomp of “Good Time Girl” serving as the last one before a couple of older songs put in an appearance. While for the most part it’s hard charging rock full of boogie, swagger and heft, “Threw Me to the Wolves” is a more soulful and funky number. It’s dedicated to Wolf Jaw’s Tom Leighton who passed away a couple of years ago and were a band who had toured with Nichols. It’s possibly the tamest moment of the night with Nichols taking a deft and delicate approach to his work on this one and even turns down the volume on the guitar at one point to a whisper. Of course, the people next to me thought it was ok to talk to each other during this moment and ruined the impact. But the point is made and appreciated nonetheless, even if the effect is lost, I’m sure it wasn’t for others. It’s also here where Nichols presents a rough and ready interpretation of The Rolling Stones’ “Miss You” that could win over Keith Richards to like the song.
Meanwhile, the groove-laden “Honey Forgive Me” allows Nichols’ band to have their own moments to shine with an entertaining bass solo and a swift drum solo. Meanwhile, Nichols lands on belting through the infamous run of “Jessica”. “Nails in My Coffin” closes out the set and in the live environment, it’s far more bare bones with the gospel and old school R&B virtually non-existent. But it’s still as atmospheric and venomous and a fitting end to the night. Well, except for the encore of “War Pigs” and whilst it may be a touch on the nose to play a Sabbath song in the Midlands, it goes down well. It’s appropriately more rock-based and Nichols does a great job of paying homage to Iommi whilst bringing his own flair to it. It’s crunchier and for a man who’s been having fun all night, he’s having even more on the final furlong.
It might not have been the busiest night at KK’s but the band seemed unperturbed. Instead, they treated those assembled to a great night as if we were being let in on a secret. But it’s a secret that more people should know about. Nichols’ transition into a harder and heavier sound has allowed for a more diverse crowd to follow him. Possibly where his performance shines brightest is there’s not one long 10-minute plus solo between songs, instead, he gets to show his virtuosity in a more subtle way between songs and within them to ensure that it’s a performance and not a recital. There’s few guitar heroes left but Jared James Nichols is one of them.
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Header image by David McClister
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Doomsday Outlaw: official | facebook | twitter | youtube | bandcamp
