The 27 Club *****
Jack Lukeman
Acoustic Music Centre @ St Bride’s Centre until 24th August
Jack Lukeman and his band return to Edinburgh with a diverse show celebrating the memory of the ill-fated members of the 27 Club. The early deaths of Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison offer fertile material for Lukeman, a noted interpreter of the likes of Randy Newman and Jacques Brel who puts the vocal performance to the fore in understated arrangements befitting the quality of the material.
Backed by an accomplished four piece band, the show opens with a visual history of the 27 Club before launching into Brel and Kurt Weill’s Alabama Song – an apposite choice as we segue into a pair of Janis Joplin standards.
While some of the more famous club members are represented by familiar material, Lukeman is happy to pick lesser known songs that draw the listener in, ably demonstrated by a pared down take on The Doors’ The Crystal Ship, a mandolin-playing promenade during Robert Johnson’s Love In Vain and a richly layered take on Echo & The Bunnymen’s Killing Moon. A vocal performer of great subtlety and warm tones, Lukeman can also rock with the best – a suite of Hendrix numbers based around Purple Haze is a great work-out for the band, as is a superlative and uplifting take on The Manic Street Preachers Motorcycle Emptiness.
The show ends with Keep Dancing, one of Lukeman’s own uplifting compositions and closes out an hour and a bit as well spent as any you will find on the Fringe this year.
Reviewer: Michael Moloney
Submitted by Michael Moloney
Great Review for Jack for his 1st night at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival.
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