He has won three Grammy Awards, recently supported Bruce Springsteen playing to crowds of 50,000 a night and back in his earlier days toured with Chris Cornell, yet tonight he stands on stage in the corner of the coolest club in Newcastle in front of nigh on 100 people.
Born and raised in Massachusetts, Negrito straddles a wide musical palette from Soul, Blues, Funk, Gospel and Hard Rock sometimes all within the same song so tonight, the small enthusiastic crowd were taken on the musical ride of their lives.
Coming on like a potent blend of Prince, Funkadelic, Sly and The Family Stone, Lenny Kravitz , Fishbone with a dash of Rival Sons, Vintage Trouble and Black Crowes delivered by a shit hot band, Negrito, oozed charisma and style, was one cool cat in possession of a rich, powerful, soulful, husky Blues voice.
“Chocolate Samurai” could have come straight from the Red Hot Chili Peppers Freaky Styley album, but in Negrito’s hands it bristled with attitude and fire. The Blusey groove of “Working Poor”, referenced Negrito’s tough upbringing with 13 siblings while the Gospel tinged “In The Pines” was a heartfelt run through a traditional Folk song that would have resonated across the plantations during those grim times at the turn of the 20th century.
While Negrito looked the part with his Gibson Firebird, his musical foil, Clark Sims was a revelation, laying down the Funk one minute, cranking out the riffs the next and then delivering a screaming solo all with the biggest smile in music.
The musical telepathy was off the scale with bassist Lilly Stern and drummer James Small locking in tightly delivering the deep, grooves that drove the music with such a powerful force giving Negrito and Sim space to improvise all while Bryan C. Simmons added the stabbing organ over the top.
Negrito’s wonderful, Soulful voice shimmered on the ballads “I Hope Somebody’s Loving You” and “Son of A Broken Man” which dripped with raw emotion and contrasted starkly with the huge groove of “Living with Strangers”, which took a wicked left turn as they launched into a Funked-up snippet of “Iron Man”. Quite, quite brilliant.
Elsewhere as the band improvised through “Oh Betty”, they dropped in a few bars of “Tush” and it was this effortless improvisation and unexpected twists and musical turns that made the show so intriguing.
“Fantastic Feeling” went full on Funk and had the whole place moving while “Plastic Hamburgers” and “The Duffer” rocked hard, very hard.
For sheer intensity, energy, passion, musicianship and kaleidoscope of musical styles, Fantastic Negrito was hard to beat and it’s no over exaggeration to say that this may well have been the best show Newcastle has seen in the last 10 years.
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