Ginger Wildheart, what a talented individual. Now here’s a guy who eats, sleeps and bleeds music.
I recently got the pleasure of watching two intimate solo performances from The Wildhearts frontman Ginger here in LA (July 16th @ Viper Room and July 17th @ El Rey). He put together a stellar band (Michael Butler – Jetboy, Scott Lipps, and Billy Morrison – Camp Freddy) with no notice and after only 3 days of rehearsals as a band killed it. It felt as though they had been playing together for years and all of them shared an excitement to be performing together which is both unique and refreshing these days.
Ginger pulled out a collection of material from his solo albums and various Wildhearts discs. The tunes translated live like they were recent radio hits and for the first time in a very long time I watched two separate Los Angeles audiences become extremely engaged and excited during a set. That, in itself, is a rare and missed quality to this Texan.
With the state of the music industry constantly shifting these days, it’s very relieving to watch a band exude energy, ignite excitement and just plain out rock. It shows that no matter how many people insist on downloading albums free and no matter how much record labels aren’t willing to take risks that at the end of the day music overcomes all and will survive.
Ginger – way to go. Hope you come back to LA soon.