Tonight, was a bit of a strange one as Mickelson, San Francisco-based singer/ songwriter/ artist/ producer Scott Mickelson`s show was a kind of co-headliner with a local Country artist, who in fairness had garnered a fair show of support.
This Grammy ballot nominated folk rock / roots artist therefore took the early slot wonderfully aided by his Swindon based band who comprised Jon Buckett on keys, Lee Moulding on drums and new boy Ian Taylor on bass.
After a little tuning of his guitar and banjo, he and his fellow musicians shared a captivating hour of reflective and at times amusing but delightfully enjoyable songs.
Scott kicks off with `No Translation For No` before heading into `Jagged Tooth` both numbers from his `Drowning In An Inflatable Pool` album from a couple of years ago.
An album that was borne out of frustrations with the government at that time.
We have what i`m sure was `Only Ugly When You Cry` from the latest album `Known To Be Unknown` which was written during covid and relates to cultural and political issues in the United States.
`10 Ton Heavy Thing` is a cut off 2015`s `Flickering` release which is quickly followed by `Rich` a track that seems to address the issue of growing old but not entirely accepting the situation which bled into a musical jam from the singer and the band. The latest single `Only Grey Matter Boiling In My Head` described as “…a comical take on those moments of completely losing your cool,” is shared with the singer hinting that somebody famous was on it and indeed it was Colin Moulding from the legendary band XTC playing bass. Coilin is also the father of Mickelson’s drummer Lee.
The distressing fact that there have been a total of 67 mass shootings in the US in total by today was declared by the singer before he closed out the set with the thought provoking `UNarmed American` which deals with the epidemic of gun violence and the lack of political will to fix it.
Tonight, was a really enjoyable event and had some fairly surreal moments such as an older audience member, whom I think had come to see the co-headliner, requesting what I think was some country music. Scott with a smile on his face shared that he`d had a request for “anything but my music”.
This evening we enjoyed around an hour of intriguing and inspiring music with some stimulating lyrical content This was the second of ten dates around the UK which ends in Swindon towards the end of the month so I’d encourage you to make the effort to attend before this artist returns home to America`s West coast.
I can assure you that it`ll be an evening that will reward your richly.
