With Halloween parties going on all around, the Garage crowd bought a mix of treat and trick with them on the 1st of November.

Ghostwoman’s fourth album, Welcome To The Civilized World, came out in September and marked the sound of a duo firmly hitting their stride, confident in their direction. This was the penultimate gig of an eight date UK tour.

Boy Wonder

From Toronto, Canada, tour support Boy Wonder is a one-man blues band, like a much younger Seasick Steve. Formerly of Chasing Amee and The Pink Flowers, he is also a director and photographer. He plays guitar, has a pedal drum by each foot and an FX box for any other backing he requires. He had an album out in 2021 but seems to be readying some new material for release imminently.

He has the right sound and energy for supporting Ghostwoman. He also has quite a thirst, several times telling the crowd he has run out of beer. His story is rewarded with a couple of pints turning up during the set. He lays down some nice blues grooves. Towards the end he lifts the pace with a couple of faster tracks.

Ghostwoman

What is it about two-piece bands? It ought to be too simplistic, too repetitive, too dull. Yet, some of the best performances we have ever seen were courtesy of one drummer and one guitarist. It requires colossal skill to pull off as you are extremely exposed up there on the stage without other people to hide behind if you make a mistake. The blues often come to the fore in this format. The White Stripes showed you could do good old-fashioned rock and roll as well, but so many guitar and drums duos find the allure of rhythm and blues impossible to resist. Ghostwoman fit into this tradition well, with their blues-tinged brand of garage rock.

This gig ought to have been a triumphant victory lap on their almost entirely sold-out UK tour, but Canadian guitarist and singer Evan Uschenko is growing more annoyed the longer it goes on for. The Garage is around capacity at 600 people but close to a 100 present are being utter dicks and talking loudly around the back area of the venue. The hubbub is so loud that Uschenko ends up addressing it on four occasions before giving up. He asks politely, he asks with more passion, he asks more rudely (but totally understandably) and he asks jokingly. Reading Indie Life are in many gig forums and I wish we could say this wasn’t a growing problem. The mystery of why people don’t just go to a pub if they want to chat and drink grows more baffling the more expensive gig tickets get, and the more ridiculous the price of beer at music venues becomes. It isn’t even just a younger gig-goer thing. Tonight, the age range is diverse, at Nova Twins the other week, with a very young crowd, the audience were so reverent at times you could have heard a pin drop in between the insane moshing and rapturous applause. It puts a dampener on an otherwise very decent evening of music.

Uschenko and Belgian drummer Ille van Dessel go hard on their new album playing the first four tracks of Welcome To The Civilized World in order. It is a flying start as the title track, ‘Alive,’ ‘That Jesus’ and ‘5 Gold Pieces’ are some of the finest material in their locker. Heavy garage rock grooves with a side order of blues classics. ‘Alive’ is on the edge of our ten favourite singles released this year, bringing a real wistfulness to a driven beat.

Van Dessel is a high-quality drummer, a flurry of motion at times, utter restraint at others depending on what the song requires. Uschenko pulls off the key trick of this format, managing at times to sound like more than one guitarist is on stage.

After the strong start there is a little bit of drift, a stretch of ‘Hindsight is 50/50,’ ‘Ottessa’ and ‘Buik’ does not have quite the same level of identity and definition as the brilliant newer additions. It is a minor gripe though as the standard is never less than decent. ‘Anhedonia’ slows things down a lot, one to lose yourself and drift in, the purest slice of the blues unleashed this evening.

They are thoroughly professional throughout, even if the audience is not. ‘Yoko’ provides a fittingly good ending. Uschenko manages to enjoy the applause at the end despite the challenges, sharing a a moment of well-earned victory with van Dessel. This feels very much like a band in the ascent. Another album as strong as ‘Welcome To The Civilized World’ will see them ready to take on bigger venues.