Bob Log III – Whammy Bar May 25, 2017

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Down at Whammy on a Thursday night and a small but rowdy crowd are gathered to see Bob Log III, all the way from Tucson, Arizona. After a suitably wild opening set from Labretta Suede and the Motel 6 – ending with Labretta face down on the floor at our feet – Bob Log comes on stage around 11.30.

How was it?

It was nuts. He played for an hour and fifteen minutes including the encore. It was a full-on, long set that didn’t let up for a minute.

As soon as he sat down it was all go, fingers flying on his guitar, and a banging hoedown beat that wouldn’t quit. His left foot was dancing between pedals, driving that sped up disco beat, and tapping a cymbal with a taped on star shaped tambourine. His right foot drove the bass drum, adding tricky little offbeats now and then, as well as keeping time throughout. Impressive given how much he was doing on guitar. All of this and some distorted howling blues vocals. He’s a one man dance party alright.

There was a costume change early in the show, when he removed his jacket to show the full black velour jumpsuit with a line of tiny mirror tiles down both sides. His sparkly silver helmet with an old black telephone handset attached finished it off nicely.

There was a lot going on in this show – so here’s a few highlights:  Bob handed a bag of balloons out to the crowd, we blew them up and threw them back on stage so he could stomp on them, popping as many he could during the next song. With colourful balloons all over the stage, the sound of popping balloons everywhere, and those foot stomping blues tunes still raging – it was like a raucous kids party for grown-ups.

Then there was the big orange life raft at the back of the stage. What was that for, you may ask. Well at one point he got in it and crowdsurfed all the way to the back of the room. Held high by the crowd, his feet waving around near the ceiling – it was quite a sight, I tell ya.

When he played Boob Scotch, as is tradition, Bob invited the whole room to ‘dip your boob in your drink, and pass it to the person next to you’. Someone starting passing round a glass of scotch. My friend got right into it, and was still sucking scotch off her top well into the next song. Then there’s the part some folks would’ve been waiting for, when he invites two women on stage to bounce on his leg for the aptly named tune “I Want Your Shit On My Leg”.

He asked them to make up their names, “don’t tell me your real name..”, so we all watched and danced along as ‘Eris’ and ‘Kissy’ went along for the ride.

He invited us all up on stage for the last few songs, to dance and pop any balloons that were left. I’m pretty sure he ended with Clap Your Tits. His slide guitar twang seemed to overlap with the complex fingerpickin’ as he really picked up speed. The crowd danced as hard as they could to keep up. Turns out Thursday is the new Saturday, if this show’s anything to go by. Well played, Bob Log III!

Dedee W

Click on any image to view a photo gallery by Ivan Karczewski:

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