Tonight Midlife Crisis ltd played their second January gig in The Raven in Straubing, a rock club that you find all too seldom these days. The entrance is hidden away in a small and uninviting alley, that leads into a small bar and bistro area. But, if you are courageous enough to carry on you come into a much larger space, in what looks like it was earlier used as a warehouse. Everything looks half finished, the drapes on the stage are hanging down, all of the chairs have been gathered from various charity shops over the years. But, and it is a big but, the place has atmosphere and character that is sadly missing from a lot of venues.
Why were we there? It was a fiftieth birthday party of a fellow musician and we were invited to play. Fuzz made a notable first impression by entering the arena on his face after failing to notice a small, but not unimportant step that took him by surprise. This incident then inevitably became the running gag of the eveing ‘Fuzz, mind the step’.
Nori and co. Played a likeable and able blend of Mississippi acoustic blues, with the highlight of ACDC’s ‘she’s got the Jack’. The audience singing heartily without ever understanding the veneareal background of the song.
There was a pivotal moment in the evening, when the packed audience, saw Christian, the birthday boy perform with his band Blues Control and experienced a barnstorming version of ‘all along the watchtower’. this broke the ice on a hitherto restained crowd. After that there was no holding back. How would we go down? This was obviously Blues country. We needn’t have worried.
From the opening chords of ‘Hungry heart’ the audience were pumped and bounced along to the entire set. Old favourites combined with a sprinkling a new songs, ‘My Sharona’ being a standout, produced an electric, sweaty and altogether feelgood performance that left both audience and band drained. A final encore of ‘We are the Champions’ and that was it. Hometime through the steadily worsening weather.
midlifecrisisltd.com 
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