Cited as a major influence on rock luminaries including Led Zeppelin, The Doors, REM and Primal Scream, Love just might be the most important band you’ve never heard of. LeftLion stopped by Rescue Rooms for a night of psychedelic wonder, and much more besides. Support came from Midnight Rodeo and Bye & Bye...
Formed by Johnny Echols and his childhood friend, lead singer and songwriter Arthur Lee in 1965, Love’s classic line-up released three albums before imploding after their 1967 psych-folk masterpiece
Forever Changes.
Almost six decades after the bands 1960s heyday, lead guitarist and co-founder Johnny Echols concluded his tour in Nottingham backed by Baby Lemonade, who from 1993 until Arthur Lee’s death in 2006, performed as his band and became an essential part of the renaissance of Love’s
music.
Tonight the band drew heavily on their 1967 magnum opus, entirely unsurprisingly and to huge fondness and appreciation from the notably mixed crowd of obvious aficionados. This was a fabulous evening of live music from a talented group of musicians who struck the perfect balance between delivering a hi-fidelity version of the much-loved original 60s sounds, while injecting just enough of their own flavour to steer us away from an overly reverent facsimile.
The psychedelic Spanish-inspired folksiness of Forever Changes was well represented, alongside some refreshingly pogoing punkiness of numbers such as Feathered Fish. Another track, I think called Wonderland, was up there with the best and brightest of 90s indie jangle-rock. Which just goes to show what an influential band Love have been over the course of the late twentieth century.
My favourite moment of the night came during The Red Telephone from Forever Changes, with a twist on the album lyrics: "They're locking them up today, They're throwing away the key. I wonder who it will be tomorrow, Trump or me?"
After that, Johnny played a sublimely fluid and soulful solo, which made me wonder whether the passions stirred up by current events are providing new inspiration and grist to the musical mill for this 77 year-old axman.
This was the last show of the tour, but you should definitely jump on wherever you get your music and start fossicking through Love’s first three albums. Lovely stuff.
Love performed at Rescue Rooms on 3rd August 2024, with support from Midnight Rodeo and Bye & Bye.
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