Steven Seagal

"From the home of the blues to a town near you"

No, you're eyes aren't deceiving you, it's that Steven Seagal, him out of the movies!

Saturday was one of the more surreal evenings of my life as I stood in a sports hall in Market Harborough Leisure Centre and watched Steven Seagal play the blues to a sell-out audience.

It would appear that as well as being an actor, producer and director, Mr. Seagal (aka "Mojo Priest") is also a musician; he has written and performed songs for some of his films (e.g. "Under Siege 2"), he has composed soundtracks for at least two of his films and released two albums ("Songs From The Crystal Cave" and "Mojo Priest").

The gig was Steven Seagal and his band Thunderbox playing a 'Delta blues' set; some interesting songs about scrambled eggs and alligator ass. The performance seemed to be the result of a weird symbiotic relationship; a fairly accomplished but nondescript band seemed to carry Steven Seagal but at the same time his name seemed to carry the band. Having said that, it was a very enjoyable gig, much better than I expected (the three pints I had before the gig may have had added to my enjoyment) and even the most cynical of audience members* were crying out for "Steven!" to come on and do an encore.

In fact the encore really sealed my enjoyment of the gig... Just as the band was about to come back on, the stage lighting failed plunging the venue into darkness. Now I can imagine a lot of bands refusing to come on and do the last number in this situation, however the band came on and did a great cover of "Wild Thing" - with lots of audience participation - lit only by flashes from cameras in the audience and a torch that a roadie had found and was used to 'spotlight' Steven Seagal.


*Here's a potted review from a 'cynical audience member':

"Actually it was pretty good.

Mr Seagal had (quite wisely) surrounded himself with a very talented R&B band, which basically allowed him to sing along whilst rattling off some blue riffs...

He's not gonna be challenging any of the blues greats with his playing, but nevertheless, he could play sufficiently well to carry it off and overall they seemed to go down a storm."