MUSIC

Fleece, Bristol (Wed 15 Feb)

With the Black Crowes on apparently indefinite hiatus, the younger, more cherubic, guitar-playing Robinson sibling steps out from the shadow of his more extrovert brother, in which he was often to be seen wearing a long-suffering expression. Beardier and slightly tubbier than before, not unlike Jim Morrison circa 1971, he now looks as though he's grown into his music – and has certainly endured sufficient misery to make it authentic. As one might anticipate, he's not a natural frontman and his vocals are strong rather than distinctive or spectacular. But with a shit-hot band in tow, he treats the Fleece to some seriously impressive, unflashy muso workouts, with plenty of guitar/keyboard interplay. Much of the material from his two solo albums, such as 'Lost and Found' and 'Standing on the Surface of the Sun' sounds, not unnaturally, rather Crowes-esque. But Robinson's choice of covers is an obscurist's delight. Not for him a Fleetwood Mac song from either the Peter Green or Buckingham/Nicks era, but 'Station Man' from the short-lived Jeremy Spencer/Danny Kirwan line-up of 1970. Material by War and the Velvet Underground underlines his eclectic tastes, and he even does an instrumental by 70s krautrockers Agitation Free. This ain't Cope-approved, hipster-friendly kosmische musik, but sounds, rather bizarrely, just like the Allmans.

Starting a literally jam-packed two-hour-plus set at 10pm on a Wednesday night was perhaps not a great idea, since punters started to drift away at the 90 minute mark. But they missed a cracking encore. "Here's a song I wrote for Neil Young in the early 60s," Robinson lies, launching into a scorching 'Down by the River' followed by brisk romp through the upliftingly primal riffage of 'Cinnamon Girl'. (Robin Askew)

Copyright Robin Askew 2012