If there\u2019s anyone left out there who both remembers the great artist Ian Hunter was in the ’70s, and remains skeptical that he could really have scaled those heights of impact and charisma and relevance once again in his 21st century resurgence, this DVD ought to be all the evidence required to change their minds.<\/p>\n
This one has everything — one of the tightest bands Hunter has ever played with, great sound, solid camera work and a setlist to die for.\u00a0 Starting with the band, the backbone is the crew Hunter made the terrific Rant<\/i> album with, including guitarist\/co-producer Andy York, Ian Gibbons of Kinks fame on keyboards, Gus Goad on bass, and the Max Weinberg-like Steve Holley on drums.\u00a0 If that wasn\u2019t enough, Hunter and the Rant-ers are joined by old friend \u2013 and Mott The Hoople and Bad Company guitarist — Mick Ralphs.\u00a0 Watching Hunter and Ralphs tear through a batch of Mott classics \u2013 not to mention Hunter solo standards \u2013 with a crack band behind them is close to musical nirvana for the Hooplistas among us.<\/p>\n
Best of all, York, who so capably assumed the Mick Ronson \/ musical foil role in Hunter\u2019s latter-day masterpieces Rant <\/i>and Shrunken Heads<\/i>, and Ralphs share the stage with more than just mutual respect \u2013 they actually feed off one another\u2019s energy and the interplay between them and Hunter is a pure joy to behold.<\/p>\n
Hunter breaks the crowd in easy, starting with a solo acoustic rendition of \u201cRest In Peace,\u201d a somewhat obscure Mott b-side, but that\u2019s just the set-up.\u00a0 The punchline comes when the full band walks on and absolutely takes the crowd by storm with a piledriving, ferocious \u201cRock\u2019n\u2019Roll Queen.\u201d\u00a0 <\/p>\n
The setlist is similar to 2002\u2019s Strings Attached<\/i> in several respects \u2013 opening with \u201cRest In Peace,\u201d covering \u201cA Nightingale in Berkeley Square\u201d and including relative rarity \u201cSaturday Gigs\u201d– but adds several smashing good rockers to the mix that turn the show into a considerably heavier and more footloose affair.\u00a0 Even carryovers like \u201cTwisted Steel\u201d are aired out with a hard-rocking authority missing from the Strings<\/i> versions.<\/p>\n
The list is littered with hard-driving classics like \u201cOnce Bitten Twice Shy\u201d and \u201cCleveland Rocks,\u201d not to mention gorgeous ballads like \u201cI Wish I Was Your Mother\u201d and \u201cIrene Wilde.\u201d\u00a0 But it\u2019s the inclusion of superb semi-rarities like the impossibly intense \u201cThe Truth, The Whole Truth, Nuthin\u2019 But The Truth\u201d and the epic Mott ballad \u201cThe Journey\u201d \u2013 not to mention the sheer brilliance of the band — that takes this show first from good to great and then from great to mind-blowing.<\/p>\n
Other highlights include wonderful takes on a pair of latter-day Hunter nuggets — the aching autobiographical rocker \u201c23A Swan Hill\u201d and the Mick Ronson elegy \u201cMichael Picasso\u201d — and predictably exuberant readings of Mott classics like \u201cRoll Away The Stone,\u201d \u201cAll The Young Dudes\u201d and \u201cAll The Way From Memphis.\u201d<\/p>\n
As if that wasn\u2019t enough, the DVD package includes a lengthy and characteristically honest interview with Hunter, as well as footage from the show\u2019s soundcheck.\u00a0 It all comes together as an unbeatable package for the discerning fan of Ian Hunter and\/or Mott The Hoople.\u00a0 If you consider yourself one, you either need this or, more likely, already have it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":29870,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5920],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-41489","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ian-hunter","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/41489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=41489"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=41489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}