I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to escape the present day. For whatever reason you want. To escape the never-ending shadow of what’s passing for our general election. Or maybe you just want to harken back to a time when social media didn’t inform of you every awful thing happening across the planet as they play out for you over your five-inch screen. Perhaps you just want to be back in the seventies, wearing your flared out jeans, chugging some bourbon while putting the pedal to metal in your Gran Torino, and last but not least you pop in an 8-track full of the Allman Brothers and Zeppelin. Well If that’s what you want – no, if that’s what you need – then you should’ve been at the Brooklyn Bowl Monday night to get shot back in time as The Sheepdogs and The Temperance Movement took us back to the time of earthen-brown couches (Oh man, there was so much brown furniture. So, so much), rabbit eared TVs, and classic rock and roll. [Also, don’t fucking drink and drive kids. Just don’t.]
First up in the way-way back machine was, appropriately enough, the Scottish classic rock revivalists The Temperance Movement. They maybe named after a 19th century anti-alcohol movement but they sound like they want to fill an arena with beer-soaked fans that grew up on bands like Cream and The Faces. Their sound is large and loud. Lead singer Phil Campbell’s (who looks like the long lost Gallagher brother to Liam and Noel) rusty and scratchy voice leads songs that are built to be raucous anthem-like crowd pleasers such as Three Bulleits, the lead single off their new album, White Bear. Campbell’s an engaging presence that your eyes are drawn to the moment he starts to crouch over and sort of hunch dances his way through most sets. His head is in constant motion, ticking back and forth as he lets loose wail after wail. And all the while it looks like every vein in his neck is about to explode.
The Temperance Movement
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The Temperance Movement
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The Temperance Movement
And this is fueled by one hell of a set of musicians all around him. Guitarists Paul Sayer and Matt White deliver full-fledged fuzzy riffs that help drive their infectious blend of bluesy rock. And drummer David Wilson keeps knocking and knocking as each song seems to swell and swell and you wanna yell “Yeah, yeah, yeah!”
The Temperance Movement
The Temperance Movement
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The Temperance Movement
The Temperance Movement
The Temperance Movement
The Temperance Movement
And once the Temperance Movement was done the time-trip back to the seventies continued as The Sheepdogs took the stage. This band from Saskatoon, Canada looked like it had just finished laying down tracks at Muscle Shoals and was about to go hit the summer music festival with Lynyrd Skynyrd or the Allman Brothers. It’s not their southern rock sound but their style as well. From guitarist Ryan Gullen’s short Carolina sky-blue denim jacket and matching tight, tight bell-bottom jeans to lead singer Ewan Currie’s cowboy inspired fringe shirt it looked like they had stepped right out casting to play Stillwater in Cameron Crowe’s Almost Famous.
The Sheepdogs
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There is such an easy and effortless vibe put forth by the Sheepdogs. They’re not a band full of wild movements and stage antics but they’ve mastered their sound so well that you feel ready to float away on all their catchy hooks and harmonies. Lead singer and guitarist Ewan Currie is a large and looming presence on the stage. There’s a seriousness when he’s playing and singing but it never feels sullen and gloomy. Standing next to him for most of the night is the firecracker of the band, guitarist Jimmy Bowskill. Bowskill looks ready to let solos rip left and right all night long. In contrast to the serious look on Currie’s face is the wide eyed grin that only disappears when he’s losing himself in a riff and his face scrunches up with a impenetrable concentration.
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The Sheepdogs
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The Sheepdogs
This is feel good music from another era. One listen and you might mistake them for staples on classic-rock radio or an anachronism. You’ll feel bits of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, CCR and the likes. You’ll feel like you have to search them out by tuning your car’s radio dial rather than typing them into a iTunes search. Your trip into the past will be complete, and you may just not want to come back.
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The Sheepdogs
The Temperance Movement set list:
· Modern Massacre
· Midnight Black
· Three Bulleits
· Magnify
· Smouldering
· Oh Lorraine
· Only Friend
· Pride
· White Bear
· Battle Lines
· Get Yourself Free
· Ain’t No Telling
· Lovers and Fighters
· Take it Back
The Sheepdogs set list:
· Who?
· I’m Gonna Be Myself
· Bad Lieutenant
· Back Down
· Southern Dreaming
· Same Old Feeling
· Right On
· Downtown
· Way It Is
· I Don’t Get By
· Plastic Man
· How Late How Long
· Take A Trip
· Ewans Blues
· Help Us All
· Laid Back
· Feeling Good
· I Don’t Know
· Whipping Post (Allman Brothers cover)
Article: Omar Kasrawi
