Blog Post
Philip Sayce / Troy Redfern - Oran Mor, Glasgow 23rd November 2023
Gregor Adams • 3 December 2023
Live Review
Philip Sayce is a LA based guitarist, who is known for being an expert in electric blues. He comes with the background to back it up having played with guys like Jeff Healy. Tonight he is at the Oran Mor. This was my first time at this venue, which was great. When we arrived, we were able to spend a bit of time in the very ambient bar before going inside to the hall. When I walked into the concert room, there were not too many people around yet, so I secured me a spot right in front of where Philip Sayce was setting up. It felt pretty surreal to be standing in front of his pedalboard having seen the set up dozens of times on YouTube, and knowing the magic they worked.
The support act was Troy Redfern, I have seen him before fronting his blues band but tonight he was a one-man band. He was using a looper and giving us a lot of slide guitar. It was impressive how much energy he was able to transmit through one guitar, and by just stamping his foot. Slide is a deceivingly hard style to play and keeping it all in time is a pretty great skill to have. I really enjoyed it and have to respect his work ethic as well as his music. Hopefully, he’ll get headline slot soon.
After a short wait, accompanied by ‘Free bird’, Philip Sayce and his band, consisting of drummer and a bass player came on stage. They immediately started ripping into some fast-paced blues. It was very cool to have such a renowned blues guitar player, standing right in front of me, shredding away. Seeing guitar players like Sayce live, especially so close up feels like a learning experience as well as an entertaining one.
I watched his Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan inspired licks and techniques executed perfectly, with showy tricks worked in just because he can, like playing his guitar over the neck, instead of under. Not an easy feat.
My favourite song was probably ‘5:55’, a bit of a slower number. It felt like it could have been partially inspired by ‘Lenny’ by SRV. It really like the song and Sayce was able to let everything out, and I could feel a sense of emotion coming through his playing. In fact, the crowd was so entranced by his tone and chops, that he totally turned off the volume of the guitar and played without any amplification. The fact that you could still clearly hear his playing was thanks to a really appreciative crown just being silent to listen, his own great skill and the quality of the beautiful relic of a Stratocaster he was playing. Each lick was of course followed by a ‘Yeah!’ from the audience, or a just a ‘mmhm’ from Philip.
It was a fantastic experience to watch this guy play and was pretty unreal to be standing so close to the action. I managed to grab a pick before I left, a great souvenir to have. One of my friend, Graham, is a big Jeff Healy fan, and he’s shown me a pick he got from Jeff. I guess it's good to know the next generation are still guitaring, grabbing the fans and keeping the picks as serious blues currency.
I look forward to seeing Philip Sayce again!