Live Review: The Urban Voodoo Machine (Bradford Nightrain, 24/11/22)

 

It's fair to say that the Urban Voodoo Machine are a bit of a unique proposition in the live arena but even by their standards, this opening night to their tour in support of the new Snake Oil Engine album (Nite Songs review here) feels like a bit of a special occasion. And not just because there's surely no other band where you'll see a lead singer, Paul-Ronney Angel, be carried across to the bar by various fans/throne-bearers on top of a crash barrier like some sort of voodoo Egyptian pharoah and then manage to almost strangle himself with his own hat a few minutes later!

Tonight's set sees the seven-piece version of the Voodoos kicking up a proper storm right from the moment Empty Plastic Cup gets things underway with Angel working the crowd with all the self-assuredness of a guy who's been fronting his band for almost two decades now while behind him, his group whip up a truly hellacious racket where new songs such as the almost showband style Johnny Foreigner and the sinister Living In Fear rub shoulders with old favourites such as the chantalong Not With You and the evergreen Orphan's Lament which has the Thursday night crowd here in Bradford almost raising the roof with their singalong. At the other end of the scale, the dark Goodnight My Dear, dedicated to absent friends, definitely has a few of the audience suddenly has a few of the audience (your correspondent included) suddenly feeling a bit of a lump in their throats.

By the time a raucous Help Me Jesus (dedicated to the late Wilko Johnson who recorded it with the band), the truly ominous Emptiness and the East European rave-up of Goodbye To Another Year finish the set, it's pretty safe to say that while it may have taken the Voodoos two decades to finally get to this corner of our septic isle, there'll be a warm welcome waiting for them when they decide to come back. An encore of Angel doing a solo version of Bastard's Lullaby followed by epic runs through Love Song 666 and Down In A Hole is pretty much the cherry on the cake.

No doubt about it, still one of the best live bands around in the UK today. Go see 'em on this tour before it finishes if you know what's good for yer.

All photos by Andy Close. All rights reserved.

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