LIVE: Del Amitri @ The Egg, 04/16/2022

Scottish band Del Amitri rolled into town Saturday night in support of their 2021 album “Fatal Mistakes”, their first since 2002.

Opening the show was a set from their current second guitarist Kris Dollimore, an eclectic half-hour which showcased his formidable prowess on both finger-picking acoustic blues and electric slide guitar. Eclectic? Song choices ranged from covers of John Fahey to Marvin Gaye; I think that qualifies.

After a brief interval, the band took the stage. Initially hampered by feedback and sound mix problems, they soon settled into an easy groove.

You may remember Del Amitri from their lone top ten hit “Roll to me” back in 1995. The fact that they speed through this song in a somewhat perfunctory manner placed halfway in the set speaks volumes, its breeziness at odds with the majority of the band’s output. Del Amitri’s songs have seen the inside of a lot of bars and the outside of a lot of lovers’ apartments looking in. They are mostly rueful ruminations on love lost, missed opportunities and whiskey-soaked regrets. “Tell her this.” “Always the last to know.” “Kiss this thing goodbye.” But none more starkly illustrated than by the achingly beautiful song they close the night with, “Be my downfall”, a paean to temptation and the inability to resist it.

Justin Currie, their lead vocalist and bass player has the perfect voice for this material, melodic yet melancholic, like a warm and enveloping overcoat, welcome on a chilly spring day.

He is ably backed up by fellow original member Iain Harvie on lead guitar and harmony vocals, Dollimore on guitar, Andy Alston on keys and accordion, and Jim McDermott on drums.

As the last notes of “Be my downfall” fade away, the Del Amitri fans in the three-quarters full Swyer Theatre prove to be more faithful than the protagonist in the song and reward the band with a rousing standing ovation.

Setlist:

Kris Dollimore.

• Requiem for Mississippi John Hurt
• Inner City Blues
• Gamblin’ Barroom Blues
• Testify
• 25 Hours a Day
• East of England

Del Amitri.

• When You Were Young
• Musicians and Beer
• All Hail Blind Love
• Always the Last to Know
• Not Where It’s At
• Kiss This Thing Goodbye
• It Might As Well Be You
• Mockingbird, Copy Me Now
• Driving with the Brakes on
• Move Away Jimmy Blue
• Crashing Down
• Roll to Me
• You Can’t Go Back
• Here and Now
• Tell Her This
• Lonely
• Spit in the Rain
• Stone Cold Sober

Encores:

• Missing Person
• Empty
• I’m So Scared of Dying
• Be My Downfall