Commonly regarded these days as the best rock gig you can experience (certainly by most folk I know), an evening with Chuck Prophet never fails to excite, there’s always an air of expectation which, on the occasions this reviewer has seen him, is always met and often exceeded. Tonight’s show was however a bit of a departure as Prophet’s usual touring band The Mission Express was missing. In the wake of his latest release “Wake The Dead”, an album which reflected his discovery of cumbia music as he recovered from serious illness, he has assembled a new line up christened The Cumbia Shoes. A five-piece set up, the Shoes are comprised of Mission Express stalwarts – James DePrato and Vincente Rodriguez – and members of the Cumbia band ¿Qiensave? – Alejandro “Flaco” Gomez and Mario Cortez who contributed to the album – along with fellow traveller Joaquin Zamudio Garcia on bass.
Glasgow’s St. Luke’s was packed to the gills by the time the band came on and there was a huge cheer as he appeared on stage. There’s a sense that we are blessed with Chuck’s presence after the health scare, everyone willing him on. That might seem a little saccharine but when hanging out in the bar before the show many folk expressed that sentiment and were thrilled that he’s still standing.
The band mounted a rumble of sound before crashing into Eddie Cochrane’s ‘C’Mon Everybody’ with the title line sung in Mexican and then segued into ‘Same Old Crime’ from the latest album. Here there was a hint of the cumbia element but the full kaleidoscopic vista of these sinuous rhythms came to the fore as they then sashayed into ‘Wake The Dead’, a drop dead brilliant delivery soaked in cantinas, street suss and an effortless sense of cool.
Three songs in and Prophet said hello to the audience promising some old songs and some new ones, some fast, some slow and some cumbia jams before engaging in some banter with Mario Cortez who, Prophet claimed, can read an audience. Fortunately Mario was cool with us but he’d previously warned Prophet to get the hell out of Tennessee as fast as possible some time before. It’s obviously a rehearsed gambit but it goes down well with the crowd, Chuck as showman, drawing us in and then declaring that “the dance floor is officially open” as the ensemble twisted into an excellent cumbia instrumental which had shades of The Clash’s ‘Armigideon Time’ woven within it.
Well known songs such as ‘Wish Me Luck’, ‘Jesus Was A Social Drinker’ (How much cowbell is too much?” queried Prophet as the band opened this one) and ‘Ford Econoline’ were familiar but played through the cumbia looking glass they took on a new personality while ‘Sally Was A Cop’ (an old co-write with Alejandro Escovedo from the latest album) was just classic Prophet, its scary tale of Mexican murder tailor made for the border sounds on display tonight. It was one of the few occasions when Prophet’s guitar truly took off tonight as the guitar duels one normally sees with DePrato were trimmed however both of them tailored their playing for the cumbia rhythms on numbers such as ‘Give The Boy A Kiss’ and ‘Betty’s Song’ excellently. This was most apparent on ‘In The Shadows (For Elon)’ (or Elonia, The First Lady as Prophet called him to the crowd’s evident amusement).
Prophet switched to acoustic guitar for ‘One Lie For Me. One For You’, dedicated to the absent Stephanie Finch, before introducing the band as the set swayed to a close with a flighty Tex-Mex rendition of ‘Sugar Into Water’, a slick ‘Ford Econoline’ and then the crowd favourite ‘You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)’ all dressed up in its new cumbia finery (as were the band in their matching suits) although the guitar wizardry remained.
Wow, what a gig and of course there was an encore and one which surprised us as Prophet led the band into the vintage Green On Red song ‘Time Ain’t Nothing’, apparently something of a rarity. This was followed by a rousing ‘Wooly Bully’ before they ended with just Prophet on acoustic guitar and DePrato on lap steel for ‘It’s A Good Day To Be Alive’ with the band reappearing halfway through on this life affirming song. A perfect end to a perfect show.
The support act was Our Man In The Field, a band which is quite the moveable feast with a variable line up. Tonight it was Alex Ellis playing solo, the first occasion your reviewer had happened on this iteration. It was a thin crowd at the beginning, only filling up for latecomers keen to see the main act towards the end but Ellis’s hangdog songs such as ‘Doing Alright’ with its mention of being conned out of a load of money and ‘Feel Good’ were keenly received by those who had turned up early.
Special thanks to Peter Cunningham for the use of his pictures
Excellent Paul saw him last night in a sardine tin it was so packed but equally great !!!
And warm! The main danger in the “mosh pit”
was from the neck of Chuck’s guitar as it swung out again and again over the front row.
The new very short song for Elon (not the one on the album) was a plum, but the apparent surprise at the average Student Age in a college town like Cambridge was maybe the best spoken line of the evening.
Thanks, Paul. And yes, I think Armageddon time is part of my DNA by now. And I know it was on playlists while I was getting treatment and subsequently working on the record.So, nice! Nailed it. Glad you enjoyed the show. Keep knocking. And keep rocking (Iknow you will).
Great review, I went to the Metronome in Nottingham on Wednesday and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I was at the Newcastle gig last Saturday. One of the top 3 gigs of my life. The other two were Chuck Prophet & Mission Express in 2023 and Green on Red in 1989. I’ve seen many others over the years. but nothing that tops Chucklington Profiterole.