Angelo Palladino @ Mixing Tin
By Davoc Bradley
What do you do when none of your mates will go to a gig with you? When Jon Gomm is on the bill, you go on your own! I'd bought Jon's album "Hypertension" and having looked at the back cover and read something along the lines of "No overdubs or other trickery, just one man and an acoustic guitar" I couldn't fathom how he did it. Now I've seen it, I'm still not sure! His guitar playing style is unique, using a combination of hammering on and off with both hands whilst using any free hand to hit the guitar and make all manor of different noises. His first tune "Stupid Blues" is a hybrid bluesy/jazzy instrumental number and from the off there are harmonics coming out all over the place, intricate scales being played and the guitar making every kind of noise you'd never expect to come from a guitar. Every tune Jon plays is like this, but all very different, "Clockwork" is a masterpiece building from the beating of the guitar right up to a tune that's so full of sound it's as if there were three or four people playing it. Every second I'm watching him play, I simply can't believe my eyes and ears, it is incredible stuff. I would love to know what Thom Yorke and the rest of Radiohead think of his version of "High and Dry", but I'm sure their answer would be that they wish they could play it like that. It follows the original, but with Jon's personal stamp firmly planted on it, it drives on, and for about the first time in the set you actually see him strumming the guitar like a normal person, and that's 4 tunes in! As he finished his set with a brand new tune, I knew immediately that I had to go and watch him again, and again, and again, and again...
Having just watched Jon Gomm, I knew Angelo Paladino had a massive job on his hands. All my worry was pointless. He started with "Play With Fire" (Rolling Stones), and his tremendous voice immediately hit me for six. It oozes warmth, feeling, and power. The timing of his delivery is slightly lazy, which adds a real quality to his singing style, making you almost want to pull the words out his mouth to hear the next warm and inviting line sung. In my opinion a good guitarist is not a fast guitarist or one who can run endlessly up and down scales, a truly good guitarist is one who can pick the right notes at the right times, when to go fast and when to go slow. Angelo has this ability. His finger picking was amazingly accurate and ran through series after series of the right notes in the right places at the right time, and it was wonderful to listen to. He intersperses covers with originals and when you get treated to an original you find out that his strength isn't just in his singing and guitar playing, it's also in his ability to compose wonderfully constructed blues songs, with parts to them that surprise and astound, leaving me grinning throughout his whole set. Sitting listening and thinking about his voice, I was reminded of Johnny Cash... Low and behold he announces "Personal Jesus", the Johnny Cash version, and it's fantastic. He smashes out the most bluesy, dirty sounding version I have ever heard, and the applause at the end of it simply brought the roof down, as did the rest of his set.
With both sets having been amazing and completely different I was really looking forward to hearing the two of them together. Starting with "Superstition", Jon banging away at his guitar and playing, and Angelo adding to the beat just clipping one of his strings, it's great fun. Both of them have got great stage presence, moving around everywhere and you can tell they are really enjoying sharing the limelight. They interchange parts easily and freely, Jon taking up the rhythm part of the tune, Angelo rattling around the notes, pulling out riffs here and there, then they swap and Jon starts, playing notes you would never imagine should go together, but that work so well with the tune. If we hadn't been told that they had not rehearsed and it was totally improvised I would have thought they had been practicing together for weeks! The highlight of this shared set for me was when playing "Wait in Vain" Angelo started to play a riff that I knew and couldn't put my finger on it; Jon heard it and joined in. As soon as they were both playing everyone in the crowd knew what it was, they both stepped to their mics and out came the Bob Marley classic "Stir It Up". Improvisation at its best, and it was simple astonishing to see.
This night runs regularly on the first Sunday of each month and if they are all as good as this one then it will be one of the highlights of every month in Leeds. Next one is January the 9th, be there or be a complete loser!
