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The Small Fakers - Mr Kyps, Poole 30
December 2008
The top Small Faces tribute band were back in East Dorset
for the third time in a year and this was the best yet. This band is
getting better all the time and this is, without doubt, the best that I
have seen them play.
The Small Fakers cover the whole career of the Small
Faces, more or less in order. The first single What'Cha Gonna Do
About It kicked off the show and the encore of Lazy Sunday
and a reprise of All or Nothing had the large crowd singing
along. The only gaps in terms of singles were Patterns, Afterglow
and The Universal. For Small Faces fans there were also plenty of
album tracks. There were four tracks from Ogdens Nut Gone Flake
including Rene "for all the prostitutes in the audience!"
The Small Fakers have now reached a very interesting
point. The band is now so tight and confident that they are certainly
one of the best tribute bands around. However, there were signs in Poole
that they are starting to become less of a tribute and are starting to
move the songs forward, adding licks and touches of their own. Maybe
this is made even more evident by the lack of Small Faces live material.
The Small Fakers are no longer imitating but they are starting to
strengthen and even improve on the originals. The jamming E Too D
is the best example of this. The Small Fakers version of this first
album track shows them starting to improvise perfectly within the
guidelines set by the original. Their feel for the music is so perfect
that none of the added elements sound out of place. Matt's addition of
the intro to Humble Pie's 4 Day Creep was an amusing touch. The
inclusion of more later Small Faces tracks such as Don't Burst My
Bubble, Wham Bam Thank You Mam or the Autumn Stone
would be very interesting as they will almost certainly show how the
group would have sounded had they not split.
If you have not seen the Small Fakers yet then check them
out in 2009.
A mention should be made of support band Roaster. They
started off the evening with a fine set of rock and blues standards
including tracks by Cream, Neil Young, Thin Lizzy, Joe Cocker, BB King
and Free.
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