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REVIEWS
The Vigilantes of Love Last Friday night I got to see the Vigilante's of Love in concert. The concert was held in the "meeting room" of an old converted house on the Main Line outside of Philadelphia and turned out to be an excellent place to host an American roots-rock band like VOL. Though the band's lineup has changed a great deal over the years, Bill Mallonee still manages to keep it all together, maintaining the Vigilantes of Love identity with a unique literary almost Dylanesque lyrical style and a strong vocal presence. The current lineup is led by Bill Mallonee on guitar, vocals and harmonica, driven by Scott Klopfenstein on drums and Jakob Bradley on bass, and is textured by newcomer and multi-instrumentalist Kenny Huston who played guitars, pedal steel and lap guitar, mandolin and violin.
Personally, I love an unpredictable show, and VOL provided just that. They began with an acoustic set that included some new songs from the upcoming independent album "To the Roof of the Sky" (they have recently parted ways with Capricorn Records), and some of their old classics including "Parting Shot", the touching "Double Cure", "Real Down Town", and "Earth Has No Sorrow". The second half of the 2 hour plus show was a true rock experience in the tradition of the best Athens Georgia roots rockers. "Blister Soul" was delivered energetically and Bill prefaced the hilariously sexual yet warm "Love Cocoon" by pointing out that the Bible itself contains a love song with explicit sexual lyrics, written by Solomon himself.
A concert like this comes along only once in a great while. The unpredictability (they didn't even play their biggest radio hit, "Welcome to Struggleville" !) was a welcome refreshment in this age of canned radio-oriented set lists. They drew upon the bands entire history, bringing up enough classics to please casual fans as well as adding enough spice (including several new unreleased songs) to keep the die-hard fans enamoured.
VOL's songs are about humanity, God, sacrifice, sorrow, pain, joy and love. Most of all they are down-to-earth bits of wisdom and reality communicated with a warmth that is missing from today's crop of modern realist bands. This is a band you can see time and time again.
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