Thorbjørn Risager &The Black Tornado Pleasance Theatre Edinburgh 12th October 2024 Review
Thorbjørn Risager &The Black Tornado were at the Pleasance Theatre tonight, one of only two UK dates on their current European tour. It may surprise some people that some of the best blues players/bands on the contemporary music scene have come from Scandinavian countries, and Thorbjorn Risager, from Denmark is continuing this strong tradition.
This show was hosted by The Edinburgh Blues Club, an organisation that has done much to promote “The Blues” as a musical genre whilst also supporting live music since 2014, and its membership are always a great audience for any visiting band to perform to. Tonight’s show, apart from a few spaces, was sold out. The band, we were told tonight, were making their return to The Edinburgh Blues Club after a seven year gap.
As a band, this line-up tonight were as tight as any band that I have seen in recent years and that is no doubt due to the fact that this band has achieved their popularity with audiences by doing it the old way - working and touring very hard with a performance schedule that sees them performing hundreds of live shows every year.
It is a mistake to simply categorise this band as simply a “blues band”; they are far more than that with their music tonight crossing into Boogie Woogie (courtesy of keyboard player Emil Blasgaard), and often more rock-based blues. The addition of Kasper Wagner (saxophone) and Peter Kehl (trumpet) gives the band a very distinctive sound whilst also allowing them to explore musical possibilities that you don’t traditionally associate with a blues based band.
Thorbjørn Risager and the band have also been very busy in the studio of late and there is a new album scheduled for release in January 2025 as well as two new singles “Long Time Ago” and “Already Gone”, so of course tonight’s set was promoting some new music and exploring the band’s back catalogue too.
If you normally associate a blues band with a particular style and emotion, then be prepared to re-think your perceptions if you listen to their music or plan to see them live anywhere. Yes, Thorbjørn Risager and the band can play traditional blues (or any style of blues) all day long, but they are also very much a fun band and from the outset, as Thorbjørn told us all, they were here to have a party. The song “Come On In” early in this set certainly fitted that party mood well.
As always, I had a few personal favourites from this set list including the ballad “Same Old Lies” and “Never Givin’ In”, the latter having the unusual method of Joachim Svensmark using a bow on his electric guitar to produce a very unusual and distinctive atmosphere to the introduction of this song. There was some fine guitar work all evening, including slide work from Joachim too.
Thorbjørn Risager &The Black Tornado were supported this evening by Edinburgh blues stalwarts “The Jensen Interceptors”. Unfortunately, I only made it over to this show in time to catch the end of their set, so my apologies to Gary, Mike and the rest of the band for this
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewedinburgh.com
This show was hosted by The Edinburgh Blues Club, an organisation that has done much to promote “The Blues” as a musical genre whilst also supporting live music since 2014, and its membership are always a great audience for any visiting band to perform to. Tonight’s show, apart from a few spaces, was sold out. The band, we were told tonight, were making their return to The Edinburgh Blues Club after a seven year gap.
As a band, this line-up tonight were as tight as any band that I have seen in recent years and that is no doubt due to the fact that this band has achieved their popularity with audiences by doing it the old way - working and touring very hard with a performance schedule that sees them performing hundreds of live shows every year.
It is a mistake to simply categorise this band as simply a “blues band”; they are far more than that with their music tonight crossing into Boogie Woogie (courtesy of keyboard player Emil Blasgaard), and often more rock-based blues. The addition of Kasper Wagner (saxophone) and Peter Kehl (trumpet) gives the band a very distinctive sound whilst also allowing them to explore musical possibilities that you don’t traditionally associate with a blues based band.
Thorbjørn Risager and the band have also been very busy in the studio of late and there is a new album scheduled for release in January 2025 as well as two new singles “Long Time Ago” and “Already Gone”, so of course tonight’s set was promoting some new music and exploring the band’s back catalogue too.
If you normally associate a blues band with a particular style and emotion, then be prepared to re-think your perceptions if you listen to their music or plan to see them live anywhere. Yes, Thorbjørn Risager and the band can play traditional blues (or any style of blues) all day long, but they are also very much a fun band and from the outset, as Thorbjørn told us all, they were here to have a party. The song “Come On In” early in this set certainly fitted that party mood well.
As always, I had a few personal favourites from this set list including the ballad “Same Old Lies” and “Never Givin’ In”, the latter having the unusual method of Joachim Svensmark using a bow on his electric guitar to produce a very unusual and distinctive atmosphere to the introduction of this song. There was some fine guitar work all evening, including slide work from Joachim too.
Thorbjørn Risager &The Black Tornado were supported this evening by Edinburgh blues stalwarts “The Jensen Interceptors”. Unfortunately, I only made it over to this show in time to catch the end of their set, so my apologies to Gary, Mike and the rest of the band for this
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewedinburgh.com
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