LONNIE LISTON SMITH & THE COSMIC ECHOES
Band on the Wall, Manchester | August 29th
When Jabba the Hut was feeding the strippers of Tatooine to the Rancor, have you wondered what would be blasting out of his DXSPACE 500s? Well, Lonnie Smith & The Cosmic Echoes would be that band. Electro boogie and 80s galactic funk all wrapped up in the improvised blanket of spiritual jazz; it’s a sonic cocktail conceived when the Silver Surfer was high on angel dust, and put into practice by one of the greatest live outfits we’ve had the pleasure to witness.
Needless to say, the 15-minute rendition of Expansions was the highlight of the night. But this wasn’t a gig of obsessive note taking or set list monitoring; rather an hour and a half immersion in groove. Propelled by a wealth of idiosyncratic gems plucked from Smith’s 50 years in the game, the band effortlessly slipped between slow moving soul ballads into looped psych workouts. As a spectator it became clear why Smith’s sound has been sampled by Jay-Z, and all but duplicated by Brainfeeder’s Thundercat. You’d have to be a robot not to be drawn into the sound, as well as the overall showmanship of the band. While Smith is billed as the ring leader in this sonic circus, the razzmatazz really came down to his band, who wooed the crowd with elaborate solos and tricks, which included drum sticks being balanced on heads and reverb-heavy guitar noodling.
Sure, at points this gig teetered on the overblown, but tonight was a reminder that bands don’t always have to be scrappy and loud to convey passion and attitude. Tonight the old guard did so in a way that oozed class.
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Words: Alex Hall
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