Alan Dearling describes the Bob Log III Experience
Arriving (perhaps and probably) from a low flying UFO above the Pennine Tops… Bob Log III is definitely a Blues Alien. A chaos, a cacophony of weirdness, eccentricity, blues noise, Bucks Fizz. And, of course, equipped with a rubber duck (his tour manager), an inflatable boat and lots of burnt toast.
This was a heck of a lot of fun, frolics and insatiable performance idiocy. It was pantomime, a spectacular spectacle. The packed audience upstairs at the Golden Lion in West Yorkshire loved it. And lapped it up – literally. In fact, Bob poured his bottle of Bucks Fizz into the rubber duck and passed it out into the crowd to lick and slobber it up. Annually, Bob Log III apparently plays upwards of 150 gigs across and beyond the known and un-known universes. He is from Tucson, Arizona, a one-man blues-legend. He sings from within a microphone equipped helmet, beats up drums and percussion instruments with his feet, along with pedals and switches to add even more warped distortion into the proceedings.
Earlier in the show, at the end of a searing slide guitar blues, Bob handed out a big pack of balloons into the audience for the folk to blow up. Then Our Blues Hero jumped on them! He plugged his toaster into a socket on stage and instructed the audience to make toast and hand it out around to the jostling throng. Amidst clouds of smoke and pink and blue lights, burning toast was the flavour of the night! Bob Log III told the audience that if he got to the end of a particular blues-tune without messing up, he wanted every single one in the audience to buy him a drink… minutes later, a small ocean of strange drinks surrounded Alien Bob. And Bob told them that he loved them all and that they were now all living in a special place high up above the City of TOD-MORE-DAN! Here’s a video of ‘Log Bomb’: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xaGeTEAkF8
Over an hour later, and the finale: Crowd members (obviously including Golden Lion’s Mistress of Ceremonies, Gig) took turns to perch on Bob Log’s knee and crunch their toast… A justifiably bonkers evening. Bob Log III is well worth ‘experiencing’.
Bob Log describes his on-stage setup in the song, ‘One Man Band Boom’, introducing himself to the audience as, “Bob Log the third, one-man band, Heyeeeh! Lemme introduce the band to ya. On cymbals, left foot. Over here on the bass drum we got right foot. Shut up! This is my left hand that does all the slide work, right hand does the pickin’. My mouth hole does most of the talkin’. And you’re looking at my finger. My finger is an asshole.”
Mid-evening, there was a support slot from Edgar Jones, formerly of The Stairs, who provided a selection of solo versions of slightly off-kilter songs from his next as yet un-released album, including the rather touching song, ‘What comes after love?’ Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb6XcqmULhw
Plus, Edgar played an oddball version of Charlie Mingus, ‘Freedom’, I think. He has recorded at least six albums including the ‘Way it is: 25 years of solo adventures’.
A bit earlier, the incendiary ‘Hot Soles’ duo from Sheffield helped the venue burst its aural seams… the ultimate in thrashed-out Rock-Metal-Noise. It seemed to well-please the Golden Lion punters. Phew!!!!
Live from the Snug Sessions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVZtF2EJefw