A rare event and a fabulous band, The Amazing Rhythm Aces took to the stage at Basement Discs for a lunchtime in store on 23 August.
Despite suffering from colds caught en route to Australia, Russell Smith and band played a wonderful short set full of country rock goodness.
 Amazing Rhythm Aces live at Basement Discs |
Led by Russell
Smith, the Aces are an excellent US country/blues/ rock band with a highly
distinctive sound, characterised by Russell Smith's great vocals. He's
also an excellent song writer, famous for the classic Third Rate Romance
(Low Rent Rendezvous) and many other songs.
Today he had a long set list to choose from, but he claimed that he knew
the words to all of his songs, so didn't really need it and proved it
conclusively. We got The End Is Not In Sight, The King Is In His Castle,
Midnight Communion, Della's Long Brown Hair and of course Third
Rate Romance.
I last had the pleasure of seeing the Aces back in 1997 at the (late lamented) Continental Cafe, so it was great to renew my acquaintance with their music.
The current line up for the Australian tour is Russell Smith (guitar, vocals), Billy Earheart (keyboards) Kelvin Holly (guitar, harmonies) Fred James (bass) and Mike Dillon (drums).
Review and photo by Anne Sydenham