An Evening with Danny And Ben From Thunder - Friday 20th January - Bush Hall, Shepherd's Bush

So, my last show of 2011 was Thunder, the first of 2012 is two members of the same band - singer Danny Bowes and guitarist (and occasional keyboardist) Ben Matthews. At an intimate Bush Hall, the emphasis was as much on storytelling as music. Indeed only 10 songs in 2 and a half hours showed that it wasn't even a 50-50 split.

The stories were entertaining - covering Thunder's life on the road and trips to Japan, Germany and a number of festivals. The music was pretty much acoustic and featured only 3 Thunder songs including a pleasant piano-based "A Better Man". The other covers were a little hit and miss ("hit" for the Who's Squeeze Box, "miss" for Chuck Berry's Nadine). For the final song of the evening - Bob Dylan's "Make You Feel My Love", the boys were joined by Danny's daughter Lucy on vocals and despite looking nervous, she performed very well.

So all in all a good fun evening, but not a show which you would choose to go to more than once on a tour.

Setlist
Seagull
Nadine
A Better Man
See My Baby Walking
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Squeeze Box
She's Not You
Interlude / I'm One (Acoustic Guitar only)
Blackbird
Like a Satellite
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Make You feel My Love