Set List:
House Is Not A Motel
Lazy Me
Bummer in the Summer
Bluebird
If I Were A Carpenter
Darkness Darkness
Gloria (I’m a Man, Who Do You Love)
Baby Please Don’t Go
Song to the Siren
Early in the Morning
We’re Gonna Groove (Turn on Your Love Light)

Priory of Brion played as part of an outdoor blues festival with B.B. King, among others on the bill. There’s always a different sort of vibe when a band plays in an outside setting. This performance reflects that sort of outdoorsy, relaxed feel. The band have also been together for a while at this point and you can really get the sense of being comfortable and enjoying themselves.

The show opens with House Is Not A Motel, goes into Lazy Me by Moby Grape and then back to another Love song, Bummer in the Summer. I loved hearing the Moby Grape song as it’s the first time I’d heard Robert sing it. It’s clear from his interpretation how influential Grape was on his own songwriting. At the end, the band breaks into a snippet of Freres Jacques, sans Robert singing. Now that would have been a treat to hear!

I’ve heard many versions of Bummer in the Summer with Strange Sensation. It was interesting to go back to its earlier incarnations and see how the song evolved. Priory of Brion tended to play it sparser and a bit trippier than Strange Sensation, who funked it up quite a bit. I liked this version and there’s a fantastic build at the end that makes you want to spin around and around. I am a big fan of the band Love, but I like how Robert has kept the spirit of their songs alive and added a modern, more unique approach to them.

At this point Robert apologizes for not being back sooner and offers his motiviation behind putting together the band. The crowd is quite happy to have him there.

Staying on a west coast journey, Priory of Brion blaze into one of my favorite 60s tunes; Buffalo Springfield’s Bluebird. I was excited to have this on CD. I do have a video version from a concert Robert did in Italy around 1994. I’m afraid I’ll never be able to listen to the original again. It’s pretty pared down instrumentally. The band allows Robert’s powerhouse vocals to carry the song.

I never tire of hearing If I Were A Carpenter. I’m glad they include it as part of their regular set list. It’s just a beautiful song. You can really how much Robert loves this song by the emotions he pours into singing it.

Speaking of this amazing emotion Robert puts into his singing, as I was listening to this particular version of Darkness Darkness I realized that this is what puts Robert in a class by himself. You can really feel how passionate he is about the song, in every one he sings. It doesn’t matter if it’s one of his own songs or Robert interpreting a favorite, his love of what he does remains as strong now as it did then. And each version of the song is different, be it instrumentally or the little nuances Robert adds to it.

Before singing Song to the Siren, Robert comes out singing what I believe is a bit of a Neil Young tune which he did sometimes during 1990’s Manic Nirvana tour. This is another song I never tire of hearing. Again, the band seem to know when to pull back and just let Robert’s vocals carry the tune. In the middle of the song, there is this fantastic middle-eastern chat. After several listens, I think it’s from a song by the late Quawaali singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. It works in a rather odd sort of way. It makes me want to hear Robert tackle a full middle-eastern song!

Robert travels down to the Delta and Chicago for some roaring blues tunes. He tells this funny story about how many great original blues songs he wrote. He just didn’t realize they belonged to other people! The audience gave a huge roar of support. The band broke into Early in the Morning and We’re Gonna Groove (much funkier than the version from Zep)– songs that seemed to appear in a lot of PoB shows.

The only downside to this CD is its too short! Being part of a festival I gather the band had to pare their set list down. Other than that, the sound quality was quite good. There’s a lot of crowd noise in the background, but the fact that they’re speaking in a foreign tongue somehow doesn’t seem to interfere much. You get the feeling they enjoyed the show a lot (what’s not to enjoy) as did the band. I would highly recommend this.

By Lilip