Julian Sas has been in the Blues music business for 30 years or as he himself says “On the Road, Story of my life. Bad food. Etc” On his latest album “Miles and Memories” he looks back on these 30 years lyrically.
He started the show with 2 songs from this album, title song “Miles and Memories” and “Midst of Madness”. Don’t expect a different type of sound with an album from Sas after 30 years.
This is the old three-piece blues band he started with, there are no keys to be heard on the album either. It is unadulterated blues, rock and boogie!
After the first two songs I was afraid that he would play the new album in its entirety and that the older songs would not be played or would be played less, but fortunately many older songs were also played, such as “Home Feeling” from 2002 and “World on fire” from his previous album Electracoustic from 2022. After another song from his latest album, which many took home after the show, it was time for one of the highlights of the evening.
“Blues for J” remains a wonderful song. What a beautiful build-up this song has. While the Hammond sometimes had the upper hand at the earlier shows, Sas can do it all by himself here. The transition from the slow blues to the harder part of the solo is phenomenal and the audience screams for more.
The closing of the song together with drummer Lars-Erik van Elzakker was particularly subtle and very beautifully found. Sas would not be Sas if he did not completely blow the room away again with “Stand your ground”. Wonderful riff with a piece of Hendrix in it.
After 1 hour the band stopped for a break, which was necessary because they had promised to play extra long tonight due to “complaints with a big wink” the night before.
After the break, the set consisted of old material except for one song, “Lights finds a way”. The start was “Roll on” with Freddy King licks. I always get so happy when I hear the slide of “Turpentine Moan”.
A wonderful free interpretation of “Dust my broom”, but perhaps even better than the original riff.
Of course, the crowd favourite “Blues for the Lost and Found” also came along. What a fantastic song this remains after all these years. A wonderful build-up with a fantastic solo with distortion. Sas is a showman who tries to win over the audience and he certainly succeeds with these kinds of songs.
Towards the end, of course, the inevitable “Hey Joe” came along. For me, this is not necessarily necessary. Sas has enough good songs of his own. But the audience was already screaming for it, so there is a demand for it.
The Encore is not hard to guess. Of course, “Bullfrog Blues” by his great idol Rory Gallagher was played followed by another nice long Boogie.
As Jos Verhagen already wrote in the review of the latest CD, “You have to experience Julian Sas live to really experience his music” I completely agree. Was it all just as exciting tonight. No, this was straight forward Julian Sas. But as always wonderfully tight and you know what to expect.
He plays his heart out. And Julian Sas, Edwin van Huik on bass and Lars-Erik van Elzakker on drums did that fantastically for 2.5 hours.
