The Dodge Brothers at The Wedgewood Rooms: 'The music world would be a poorer place without Mark Kermode and co' | Review

Tonight, that Dan, Dan Donnelly is the opening act for The Dodge Brothers. The well-travelled Northern Irishman has been part of The Wonder Stuff and The Celtic Social Club, as well as numerous other projects, and a solo artist. He is also currently a full-time member of The Levellers.

His solo material is acerbic, angry and laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes all within a single song. It’s not often the support act earns a thoroughly justified encore. As the headliners humbly acknowledge when they take to the stage, he sets a very high bar to follow.

The four-piece brothers hark back to the roots of rock’n’roll with a blend of Americana, skiffle and country music, and while they have plenty of covers in their arsenal they also write most of their own material. They come rattling out of the traps with Oh California, a self-penned track which would not have sounded out of place on an AM radio station in 1950s America.

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They perform, as frontman Mike Hammond quips early on, songs about ‘transport and homicide and high-powered interpersonal weaponry’ – not to mention a hefty dose of religion of the fire and brimstone kind.

Song titles like You Can't Walk Like a Man (When You're Too Drunk to Stand), Step Away From The Car and Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm Blues (the latter featuring some fine audience participation) should give you a good indicator where the band are coming from.

Aly Hirji on lead guitar gets to unleash some hot licks of his own, as well as a couple of impressive solos.

And over on stand-up bass and harmonica is Mark Kermode, the renowned film writer and broadcaster. While he may be better known than his colleagues, it is by no means his show – there is an easy-going interplay between the band members and with the audience. Kermode sprinkles amusing film-related anecdotes and musical history lessons throughout the set (as well as telling us about the problems of finding the right key harmon ica) – and also how U2’s Bono inhibited the recording of their second album, The Sun Set.

Their version of Oh Death, as popularised by blues legend Charley Patton, is a set highlight, building from their three-piece harmonies to a stomping finish.

We also get to hear about how they were recently in Liverpool to shoot a scene for a new film which required a skiffle band, and they got the gig by virtue of being the only one in the UK the filmmakers could find. They tell us this as prelude to Died And Gone To Hell which sees drummer Alex (son of Mike) Hammond come to the front of the stage to play washboard and wine bottle – a feat not without ‘danger,’ apparently…

It may be ‘old time’ music, but the modern world would be a much poorer place if there was no room for an artform that still has the power to be this entertaining.