Max Bianco and the BlueHearts - Troubadour, London, 29/3/2025

  by Steev Burgess

published: 17 / 4 / 2025

The character of a venue can have a big part to play in the live experience , and the Troubadour in West Brompton is a unique one. You get the waft off the cafe serving French food upstairs where blackened medieval acoustic instruments hang alongside folky pots and pans and old drawings. Posters of past glories cling to the walls of the passageways and alcoves along with pictures of minstrels and, of course, troubadours. Tales abound of the Sixties folk revival and how Paul Simon, Judy Collins, Davey Graham and a young Bob Dylan played here in its basement, as does a tale that at the height of his fame, his Bobness was turned away at the door because he didn't have British money in his pocket to pay for admission. But things have slowly moved on from then, and there are now posters up advertising future large Libertines events. Bands such as Florence and the Machine and Ed Sheeran have now appeared here. Of course, tonight's headliner Max Bianco fits comfortably in both folk-rock and indie worlds and is very much the travelling troubadour, so it's an ideal scenario for his sound. It was an interesting vibe down in the basement with Hartlepool Brit-punk band Northern Hospitality attracting a distinctly Northern element to the crowd, with not the naked ankle of a Shoreditch hipster in sight, as they played a set likely to appeal mostly to Oasis enthusiasts. Max Bianco hails from Hartlepool too, and sported a Northern Hospitality T Shirt beneath his trademark furry hat and Burberry scarf. He has, howevrr, his own eclectic following of different ages and nationalities, no doubt acquired at his gigs in his current home of Cambridge, London and on his excursions to the Libertines stronghold of Margate, where the charismatic singer first really came to my attention as an acoustic act. Dylanesque in his angular turn of phrase, I thought, yet humble and self-deprecating and with that urchin-like quality of an Artful Dodger with an element of skiffle about him that instantly warmed him to the Libertines and their following. This particularly came together over a long weekend in December 2023 when the Libertines did a video shoot and played two gigs a day in various venues with Max supporting at the Margate Lido. Fifteen months on, and here I am in a basement rammed full of expectant faces as Max Bianco and the BlueHearts take the stage, that will show another more rocking side of his music, in the band's first headlining show. Dim blue light bathes the stage as the crowd closes in as the band launch into the indie-skiffle of ‘Harlot Room’, a song from five years back that has a faint hint of ‘Beg, Steal or Borrow’ by Peter Doherty, a name that would become so influential in Max's future. The subtle musical homage continues with the Dylanesque ‘Kiss Me’ with its gypsy folk=like climax and after which ‘Crying All the Tme’ creeps in with a Stones- like chugging bluesy rhythm and the lyric "Take, take what you want from me/Take anything that I don't see." With the stage lights turned red, ‘Never Coming Home’ sees a Troubadour's farewell to the small home town, taking the long and weary road with the memorable line "Everybody's making love/Except for you and me.” ‘Memory of the Days’ is another glance over the shoulder of someone looking for a place to stay and other longings ("Though your mouth tastes like an ashtray/I still need a kiss." Musically it sounds like the singer took a journey down Highway 61 and picked up some Voidoids on the way. Next was the slower love song ‘Diamond in My Eyes’ which in other hands could have turned into a totally Beatlesque number, but the gritty guitar break by lead guitarist Oli Steggles keeps giving it a more earthy feel. A pacey rocker ‘Don't Knock Me Down’ followed, seeing the band, Max, Oli, Johnny Weight on bass and Mr Griff on drums, turning in on themselves, not for the first time, as if to intensify the chemistry and sound. ‘Cold Outside;, a catchy crowd favourite. followed, with the memorable line "I never thought I have to beg just to get by" once more, keeping it real. Troy from The Mitchells, who performed a tube side guerilla gig in Camden recently, was beckoned by Max from the wings to sing a bit of call and response on the " It's cold outside - it's raining inside" choruses with the crowd joining in on one of the night's highlights. ‘Find My Way to You’ takes it down a little with the searching earching lyrics preceded by Max slowly exploring interesting chord progressions in the intro. Once again we see Max very adept at the catchy chorus, no bad thing inthis day and age of music, and some Robert Quine-like crunching lead guitar by Steggles that plays out the angst at the end of the song. The re-jigged version of the BlueHearts clearly have some talented players but have an exciting vulnerablity as a unit exemplified in the final straight, where we get close to closure with ‘Radio Song’. It opens with a long mostly percussive guitar and drums intro that must make the title ironic. It threatens to fall apart before pulling together into a tight punky verse and chorus, before ending again in another rough-edged instrumental beneath the molten red lights. The encore is the irresistibly catchy folk rock ‘Northeast Bay’, with Charles Bueller of the Dead Freights, another band with Libertines connections, summoned to the stage to play guitar and sing face to face at the microphone with Max, for a fittingly raucous sing along. Lights dimmed, set lists were grabbed by eager fans and perhaps another landmark gig had been performed in the cellars of the Troubadour. I've a feeling that Max Bianco has yet to realise his full potential, and is certainly one to watch. Top two photos by Luis Piccin Lower photo by Steev Burgess

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