Gig Review: Pete Molinari – MJC Dartford 18/11/11
It’s Friday night and I’m in Dartford to catch Pete Molinari, Medway’s answer to Bob Dylan, at the Mick Jagger Centre in Dartford. Actually that’s a little unfair, though there are obvious comparisons to be made with Dylan, Pete Molinari has a much better voice and a wider range too, it’s not just about folk blues, there’s large elements of country as well as a touch of gospel to his music.
Before Pete Molinari though we’re treated to unannounced support act Graham Cousins. Well, I say treated…. Folk singer Cousins kicks off an overlong set with a song that has so many clichés shoehorned into it that we assume he’s a comedy folk act. Sadly it quickly becomes clear that this is for real as his between song chatter shows he takes himself quite seriously. The rest of set is a mixture of piss poor, cliché ridden self-written songs and excruciating covers of once good songs; if it wasn’t bad enough that he tried to turn Thin Lizzy’s ‘Boys Are Back In Town’ into a ballad, he follows it with a cover of Nick Cave’s ‘Red Right Hand’ that verges on blasphemy as he manages to suck all of the of the atmosphere and menace out of one of my favourite songs. Special mention though must go to his song about a dead lover being in a hole in the ground. Clearly this was supposed to be a tender ballad but the lyrics were so cheesy that it reduced half the people around to sniggering schoolkids. After the show my friend thought he spotted people actually paying for CDs by Graham Cousins, but I suspect they were paying him to quit singing.
A short break and a much needed beer later and a dapper Pete Molinari takes to the stage. Launching his set with the excellent ‘Love Lies Bleeding’, from his first album, he looks a little uncomfortable and lost on the stage; apparently for the majority of the tour he’s been playing with a full band. Happily the lack of band mates doesn’t affect his performance; Molinari has a stunning voice, somewhere between Roy Orbison and early Elvis Presley, and sounds just as good live as he does on record – no need for autotune here! Watching him, and particularly the expressions on his face, as he sings it really stands out just how much he enjoys playing the songs he loves. I honestly don’t think it matters whether he has an audience or not, this is as much for his own enjoyment as ours. For most of the set he’s itching to ‘break out’ and up the tempo but being restricted to just guitar and harmonica it’s a risk he doesn’t appear willing to take, not that it matters. Molinari has a fine catalogue of songs and, like most compulsive music fans, is keen to share the songs he grew up loving with anyone who listen. As such the appreciative audience is treated to a fantastic 90 minutes worth of beautifully performed self-penned tracks mixed with classics like ‘Tennessee Waltz’. The fact that without knowing the songs you couldn’t tell the covers from the originals is a mark of just how good a song writer he is. As the night goes on he becomes more comfortable on stage and by the end of the night his between song chatter has evolved from a brief note about the song to taking the piss out if family. I think next time I’d like to see him with a full band but for tonight the man, hi guitar and his harmonica are more than enough.
Mark Cousens
