Initially I had intended to review Tortured Soul.
I realized then that it was Good Friday and that, by complete mischance, had rendered reviewing any Tortured Soul gig useless as it could never surpass the original Good Friday tortured soul gig, no matter how much torture or how much soul was involved.

Unfortunate for the Brooklynites back in town, but why could nobody see the irony from my reviewer’s standpoint?
It was impossible.

Ok they’re back in their hometown after touring extensively for a month, but straight up, it’s not like this was a Led Zeppelin reunion gig. This was four white guys from Brooklyn playing house music live on instruments and being the tortured souls on Good Friday.

There’s cats all over the Christian world nailing themselves to crosses and wearing thorns on their head to feel the torture of the immortal Immanuel’s soul on Good Friday.

The local postman, a bloody mess nailed through the wrists to a pole – that’s a tortured soul gig in The Philippines on a Good Friday, I know it’s just me, but I couldn’t shake it.

Nope. It’s like Bob Geldof’s Live Aid , a one day in history thing, a Woodstock, an Altamont, a Zeppelin reunion at Wembley (well not quite).
All of them had the twenty year anniversary, some worked, some didn’t - none of them matched the original.

A Tortured Soul gig on Good Friday? From the reviewer’s point of view – it’s a dead duck.

There’s real and there’s real real. Some would say it ain’t where you’re from its where you’re at. Detroit’s Amp Fiddler (who personally sets up his own gear on stage before nonchalantly sitting down to take the crowd by storm), has been there, done that, and right now he’s right here doing this.

This was as professional, enthusiastic and real a performance as anything you will see. Performers who are naturally talented and seasoned professionals at the live game take the normally stoic New York crowd in the palm of their hand.

There’s something so natural about it that after only three tracks Amp is on his back, on the stage playing Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” with his feet in a kinda practiced, not so impromptu, impromptu adlib.
The crowd loves it.

He then takes the tempo up a notch with drummer Marcus leaving his seat from bar to bar in a Keith Moon manner, not in the slightest copycat, I might add, he just hit his drums so damn hard he left the seat a few times and gets an entire NYC crowd singing to the person next to them.

Again, I would never have thought it possible but the whole NY crowd does as he says and the echoes of “you are so divine, I love you, your vibrations touch my soul” ring throughout the theatre. It’s a great moment, He’s got the crowd, his band are tight.

It says a lot that the weakest track of the night follows. A drum machine 4/4 beat kicks in and the crowd, (now 50 percent Tortured Soul fans) responds as only they know how to respond to 4/4 beats. Everyone is dancing.

The whole room in the palm of his hand now with the weakest thing about the performance so far a drum machine.

The band go into overdrive and send it home with a twenty minute long version of the underground anthem “I’m doing fine by myself”, a sublime piece of Detroit house music which Amp takes and lets his band run wild with.

Solos from singers Vicky and Dawn, bass solos from Kenny Ken, inspired drumming too (Marcus, still) turn this deep soulful piece into a party sing-a-long on stage and again the crowd loves it.

Amp fiddler played keys with all the Detroit greats. His heritage with P Funk as George Clinton’s keys man ensures his credibility anyway, but if you get the chance to see him - take it. It’s a seasoned performance. In today’s sad society it’s just not cool to trust any self confessed fiddler but believe me…you can trust Amp Fiddler.

The Dribbler