This concert by Josh Smith in Muziekcafé De Cactus is quite special. Erwin Kwakman said that the first concert that was canceled five years ago due to corona was the concert by Josh Smith and now the band is finally there.
And people want to know that too because the very cozy hall is completely sold out.
The supporting act starts precisely and is provided acoustically by the duo Ruud Weber and Lars Müller, in which Lars does the solos and Ruud accompanies him rhythmically and takes care of the lead vocals.
They have a lot of fun and that radiates to the audience. It becomes a great performance of 45 minutes and they play seven songs. Lars stands out with his often brilliant playing and Ruud with his excellent singing, but we already know that from his band King Of The World, in which he plays bass.
The songs played are the well-known Jessica, How About You, Bluesified, Hard to Love, Walking in Memphis, Why Me and they close with Jetairliner by Steve Miller to the great enthusiasm of the audience. I did not know Lars Müller but he is so good!! This duo is the perfect opener for Josh Smith!
It’s Josh Smith’s turn, who plays the guitar with his completely recognizable sound and does the lead vocals. Josh has a distinctive gritty voice that has a completely unique sound.
He is accompanied by the truly fantastic bassist Travis Carlton (son of Larry Carlton) and the equally good drummer Gene Lake (played with Marcus Miller, David Sanborn, among others).
What a class act we have on this cozy, intimate stage! When asked about the setlist, Josh’s answer is: “We don’t have it, it’s in our heads!”
The band starts the performance at half past nine, in which Josh says that it will be loud & sweaty tonight. And that is true, not only because of the warm hall but also because of the music.
The band starts with two instrumental numbers without a title, just like the third song. It immediately becomes clear how good sound engineer Gerard Jansen is. The lazy, deep bass, the jazz drums and the guitar come through beautifully.
The song is jazzy and ends with solid rocky guitar playing and continues directly into the second song with a lot of dynamics; from hard to soft. Beautiful openers. Then follows the wonderful slow blues with a goosebump solo by Josh.
The title of all the other songs is known because Josh mentions them. It gets funky in Pusher: a wonderfully short drum intro, the bass joins in and then there is fantastic guitar playing again. A bass solo with supported soft drums and pointed guitar jabs make it super rhythmic.
The song has a long version with a jam character and contains another masterful drum solo with bass accompaniment. Top song! It gets quieter in What We Need in which the guitar has a Stevie Ray Vaughan-like sound and has a soft, very intimate interlude with a rocking climax at the end.
Very funky with wonderful swing is Letting You Go with funky driving bass, powerful drums and an unparalleled guitar solo.
Penance is an instrumental written for his wife with wonderfully atmospheric sounds and a lot of variation in the playing, played very softly in the middle in which the deep, full bass and softly ticking drums are the basis with top sound from Gerard Jansen. You hear again how important a good sound is. After an hour of playing, the break follows.
Set two starts strongly with the rocky When I Get Mine with nice tearing guitar work. The second song is a cover of B.B. King Paying The Cost To Be The Boss, of course a slow blues with wonderful bass/drums drive.
Josh tells us that an album will be released in September, a special project in honor of B.B. King’s 100th birthday. He would have turned 100 this year. An absolute highlight is Triple J Hoedown. It starts in country style, then funky, then rocky with many tempo changes.
Then hard, then soft, then fast, then slow played with very innovative guitar playing. An insane and indescribably well-constructed song. A musical technical masterpiece!
Then comes the ballad with a nice slow groove; The Middle. The set ends with the pounding slow blues Where’s My Baby in which a piece of Mister Sandman is woven. The audience is asked to clap and sing along and the entire hall joins in.
The mood has been great all evening. Of course, despite the heat in the hall, they have to come back for an encore and that is Angel by Jimi Hendrix, Josh’s favorite Hendrix song as he says in the announcement.
They make a very own version of it with heavy sound effects and rock and jazz combined influences. At the end, the sound slowly dies away and a grand concert comes to an end for a wildly enthusiastic audience.
Conclusion: A top evening on all fronts. Great musicians, the absolute top. Excellent sound, so important, great atmosphere and that in such a small but very cozy hall! Blues Magazine thanks Erwin Kwakman of Muziekcafé De Cactus for the great reception.
Line-up:
Josh Smith: guitar, vocals
Travis Carlton: bass
Gene Lake: drums
