Christian Kane

One hell of an opportunity arose on Monday night for fans of Christian Kane’s musical duo, Kane. Having played acoustic sets at the Senior Partners convention last year and at The White Room this weekend, Christian and fellow Kane member Steve Carlson were accompanied by a full band of country rockers for the first time in the UK at the Garage, Islington.

That southern drawl (and more than a couple of Jack Daniels from the looks of it) made Christian’s inter-song banter a bit difficult to hear, but it didn’t affect the quality of the music or his energetic performance.

Sporting a truly scary hairstyle (even by Islington’s standards), Christian led the band through all of the songs on their album Kane, and some new tracks to boot. From the high energy fiddling of Crazy In Love (not that one), to the aptly pacey The Chase and the patriotic America High, there was pretty much something for everyone... as long as everyone liked country-flavoured rock.

Just when the audience thought the fun was over and the band left the stage, a familiar face appeared on stage. J August Richards (Gunn), a huge Kane fan in town for The White Room, mustered the crowd to call for an encore. No one was disappointed as Kane returned to the stage with Rattlesnake Smile.

Also surprising was the quality of support band Charlie Bullitt, fronted by ex-SClub7 member Paul Cattermole. Similar to Lenny Kravitz’s sound, their mix of funk and rock was great for dancing. Paul’s voice was incredibly strong and with his rock ’n’ roll moves and long-haired headbanging, it was hard to believe he had ever been in SClub.