Edgar Winter Plays London REVIEW

Edgar Winter has been around the block, playing everywhere from tiny Texas bars to European and US stadia and he has learned his stagecraft and how to put an audience in palm of his hand.

At Koko on Tuesday he played a set full of his best known tracks, a smattering from the latest CD and gave the crowd exactly what they had come for.

He is older than in his prime and his voice is gruffer and has less range than before but his keyboard and sax playing are still fine and he has a kick ass band behind him – Jason Carpenter Drums, Koko Powell Bass, Doug Rappoport Guitar – and the four have been playing together long enough that they know each other’s moves almost telepathically.

Winter himself was a great deal more animated than the last time I saw him and the whole show was at a higher energy.

The setlist definitely offered the crowd what they wanted with superb versions of Free Ride and Texas as well as the best song on the Rebel Road album, The Power Of Positive Drinking and he has the big numbers in terms of Tobacco Road and the inevitable Frankenstein set to warp factor 5 with much jamming between Winter and Rappoport.

The negative side was that there was TOO much show and he stretched some of the songs out so far that they lost all semblance of where they started.

The two songs that meant most to the crowd were a stirring Rock & Roll Hootchie Koo and the encore number of Jumpin’ Jack Flash, his brother Johnny’s most popular number.

Definitely a good night out and worth the evening just for Jumping Jack Flash.