This was the first of two nights at the Borderline for DAN BAIRD and his hotter than hell rock & roll band HOMEMADE SIN, who for the uninitiated comprises Keith Christopher (ex-Georgia Sattelites Yayhoos etc) on Bass, Mauro Magellan (Ex-Georgia Satellites etc)on Drums and Warner E. Hodges (Ex and current member of Jason & The Scorchers, also in The Bluefields) on Guitar. Together, are one of the greatest live rock bands touring at the moment.
We got into the Borderline a little before 8pm as we knew this would start early. At this point, I discovered that although I had got out my notebook and pens ready to take with me, I'd left them at home, so this review is being done sans notes on the setlist, So I apologize in advance for any mistakes I make on that front.
When they came on pretty much bang on 8, about two thirds of the sold out crowd were ready to have their minds blown apart as the four of them launched into Well Enough Alone: nice and slow to start with but building to a monster guitar freak out from Warner. It also saw him do the first of his guitar summersaults where he sends his guitar over his shoulder and grabs it and carries on playing like nothing happened. A neat trick indeed.
From there, it continued a little slowly to begin with but they soon unleashed some of the hits to really get the place going. It was certain that it wasn't All Over But The Crying and that everyone would sing along for Love You Period. That one saw some very nifty bass work from Keith who it has to be said was dressed as if he had just come from a job interview at Tammany Hall back in the day.
We all tried to Keep Your Hands To Yourself but when the band is on fire like this lot are it is very hard to stop yourself from grabbing someone close by! They managed to throw in the odd new song from The Bluefields' new album (Pure) the first of which If Not Now When really burned with power and energy and fit right in with Homemade Sin's blueprint. There again, that's no surprise as both Dan and Warner are both in The Bluefields with Joe Blanton who used to be in The Royal Courts Of China.
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Nights Of Mystery had a couple of great freakouts in it and when they broke it down to give us a verse and chorus of Get It On they had the whole place singing along. Two For Tuesday was as great as ever and also had a breakdown in it this time they gave us a chorus of Creedence Clearwater's evergreen Proud Mary.
The other new song, She's So Sick/100 Watt Girl, was one of the punkier things they played and had some real fire in its belly.
By the time they closed the set with a long meandering version of Damn Thing To be Done, however, everyone in the place was drenched in sweat. The entire band took cool solos in this including a very cool and quiet solo from Keith that got almost jazzy in places before they brought it all home in a torrent of feedback and harmony vocals and great big smiles from everyone onstage and in the audience alike.
The place made a huge amount of noise for the encore and they soon came back, Dan telling us they only had time for one song. They made it count, though, launching into a long version of Sheila that saw all of them goofing around while nailing the tune in the way they have of being both a loose band without a written setlist and also one of the tightest sounding bands you could wish to see. Another helluva trick.
If they come anywhere near you this band are a must see. Simply one of the best Rock & Roll bands you'll ever see. No question.
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