The best kind of sin is homemade…..
If you’re looking for a reason that Dan Baird And Homemade Sin are quite so fabulous, then the key just might be in what he says to his bandmate Micke Nilsson as they are tuning up before the first song.
Nilsson is looking for a cable, and Baird turns to him and says: “don’t worry about it, man, just play…..”
Those words will be etched on his gravestone. Don’t worry, just play is what he’s been doing for three decades, and it’s what he does here over two sets and well over two hours.
Working without a setlist – actually knowing the order of songs you are going to play would ruin the vibe – Baird and his trusty sidekick Warner E Hodges, a man who embodies the thought, that a guitar player should be a gunslinger, are quite honestly the finest exponents of bluesy bar room rock n roll on the planet.
Such is the improvisation here, actually picking songs out and saying what album they were from (or put another way the way a conventional review would work) is essentially rendered redundant here. Broadly speaking the first set is the less well-known stuff (“I’ll get to the mandatories in the second half, I am having too much fun going deep to the well” he says) but “Nights Of Mystery” in particular is superb, as is “Do My Worst” one that allows everyone to take a breath. No such resting however in “Shelia Sheila” while “Six Years Gone” is a magnificent affair.
Even the last couple of tunes here, though, Baird can’t resist a couple of crowd pleasers. “Julie And Lucky” was always a wonderful piece of storytelling and it still is, “I Love You Period” though is nothing more than a mighty singalong.
Good as his word, the boys are truly charged up for act two. “Licka Sense” is a glorious boogie, but that, and everything else here in truth, is forced to give way to “Crooked Smile” which stretches into a quite wonderful jam which sees Hodges prove he is one of the finest six stringers around.
The fact is, though that ever since his days in Georgia Satellites Dan Baird has been making it look effortless. “Keep Your Hands To Yourself” proves why people still adore that band. On the other hand, “Two For Tuesday” shows why they love his later work too.
No encores here (“we are too old for that shit”) but still there’s time for the evening to include “The Wanderer” a new(ish) song in the raucous “Moving Right Along” and the Satellites classic “Railroad Steel” to end things.
In his trademark no frills style Baird merely waves, says “that’s all folks” – and as he does, he leaves with good news and bad news. The good news is this was the type of gig that makes you want to get a load of your mates and form a rock n roll band. The bad news, of course, is that if you did, you’d never be as good as Homemade Sin.
