A fun Tuesday evening - when, as on all such evenings, the band's second set was sharper than the first (too bad this thing about alarm clocks, they prevent so much!). And yet another Tuesday band with a lot of variety in the luggage, partly because all the members of The Stew take turns in acting as lead singers. Lella’s light voice took for example care of ”Take out some insurance” (decorated with lovely streaming, and rippling keyboard!), and a striking nice song by the Canadian Sue Foley. A versatile artist that Lella took the opportunity to speak up for!
Mattias behind the keyboard sang, and played the harmonica on the classics "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl", and "My Babe" with the voice, and playing style (and bandsound) that made me think back to English blues from the 60’s. The driving drummer Jakob with a more soulful voice did "Little Wing", "Phone Booth", and "24 Hour Blues" (some grand organ there, yes!). And Thomas, the guitarist, handled for example "Mary Had A Little Lamb", and "Homework". On top of that we got two convincing - but totally different - instrumentals: Allman Bros dynamic "In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed" with a bunch of mean guitar, and the melodic swinging jazz standard "Blue Monk" with exquisite hammond sounds.
Despite long tunes we were spared from painful guitar orgies: Thomas' playing on his stratocaster was structured and melodic all the time. On top of that Mattias played masterly on the keyboard, and took up some well deserved solo space. For sure a very pleasant group, The Stew - and it’s very nice with a band that has so catchingly fun on stage! But the lack of an obvious front figure - typical for a band with many singers - can sometimes become a disadvantage. Both when thinking of the bands profiling, and the contact with the audience. But of course variation is fine. Why can’t you both have the cake, and eat it?
Christer Fridhammar (2005-01-27) www.fridhammar.com
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