The Blue Gils hit the stage at Next Page Cafe last Saturday night and played nothing but solid, driving blues. Slow boil blues and uptempo songs with blistering guitar notes were the order of the evening.
The Blue Gils nailed a perfect rendition of Stevie Ray Vaughn’s “Texas Flood,” with Gil Correia taking his sweet time unfolding the quiet storm of this number. His heavy chord action and his blistering phrase gave this tune an invincible might, tackling rhythms and leads, back and forth, like a sports car swiftly changing gears.
A jazz-trained drummer Dave Baker kept perfect time, like a human metronome, but with plenty of feeling in his tasteful smacks. His drum solo kept people dancing with its moveable groove. This band could certainly get a lot of people onto the dance floor, fast songs and slow. Bass player Chick Deptula controlled the flow of guitar, drums, and harp notes from guest harmonica player Satch Romano. Romano is a frequent guest/quasit member/regular feature with this The Blue Gils
Romano’s harp, clear and sharp, was melodic as hell, playing Chicago style with a lot of Boston melting pot influences in his sound. When the music got mid-tempo Romano was blowing icy cool harp lines over an adept rhythm section. Bass and drums would lock into a perfect groove while Gils’s guitar was playing chunks of soul phrases and fat chords.
On other tunes, Correia’s guitar erupted with volcanic phrases in a zone somewhere between blues and funk. His solo would take it to a higher ground, notes cascading out of the sound system. Things got really hot at the end of the second set when The Blue Gils went into “Got My Mojo Working.” People were singing along to this classic call and response number.
The Blue Gils certainly can serve it up fast and furious.
Find out more about his “thrown together band” on www.myspace.com/satchsnewbluesrevue
