The Spin Doctors were excellent at Fairfield Halls on Friday night; but they went to a completely different level at the Garage in Highbury on Saturday.

 Poor old Dodgy provided the support act (Dodgy of ‘Good Enough’ fame) and they were…..erm…..dodgy; for whatever reason, they struggled with technical difficulties and were heckled by a couple of drunk idiots behind me.  It was an awful shame because I still remember buying their album ‘Free Peace Sweet’ back in the day.  They’ll be back (I hope so).

 The Spin Doctors came on early, about 8pm and absolutely smashed the life out of the very same tracks that I heard them perform just 24 hours previously; however, this time, each had subtle extended sections and ad-libbing.  Absolutely awesome.

 It was very cool, hearing so many people sing along to hits like ‘Cleopatra’s Cat’, ‘Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong’ and ‘Two Princes’; but I was absolutely over the moon that they played ‘About A Train’ and ‘Refrigerator Car’ after placing a request with the band the previous night in Croydon.   Both tracks were exceptionally good renditions of their album counterparts and I really hope that they end up as bootlegs somewhere?!

 Speaking of which.  Here’s my badly miked up attempt at recording ‘What Time Is It?’.

The band clearly loved the more intense crowd at the Garage; that’s not to say they didn’t enjoy the atmosphere at Croydon, it was merely that the Garage was absolutely buzzing?  In fact, it reminded me of being back in the States?  Dirty old blues bar, Jack Daniels, rednecks.  Almost……

Mark White destroyed his bass parts, Eric Schenkman showed why he STILL at the top of his game, Aaron Comess seemed possessed by John Bonham on the skins; what can I say about Chris Barron that hasn’t been said already?  Awesome.

10 out of 10.  Go see them.