This week saw the Autumn Crossroads Festival coming via Rockpalast, as ever, from Bonn Harmonie.
Whilst ticket prices seem to get higher by the year (90 Euros for the four day Festival this time) the musical quality is undeniably pretty reliable these days. I remember seeing a couple of ‘dodgy’ bands in past years – no names revealed! Thursday was certainly a day when quality music was assured. Mike Zito? can only be good. Mojo Thunder? Not a name I’d heard before, but the inevitable google on YouTube was promising. So let’s get going. Lights, action, sound… and of course cameras!

On the subject of cameras. They were all in their usual positions from Rockpalast past, but there was no printed listanywhere giving the expected broadcast dates on WDR television. More importantly, for the first time there was no live feed going out on the WDR website. No explanation given anywhere. Cost cutting? If anyone out there knows, please let me know. I miss those extra acoustic numbers and interviews too. Otherwise, same procedure as every Crossroads: Rembert Stiewe from WDR informs us to switch off our cellphones and switch on our ears for some great music and we’re off…

Mojo Thunder. What’s in a name? The quartet from Kentucky certainly have a mojo about them. An indefinable something that grabs your attention from the start. Or maybe that attention grabbing is done by the boys giving 100% from the moment they step onstage to the moment they step off it. Thunder? Well, that could apply either to the bands fiery attack or the applause from an audience that lapped up every second of the bands excellent set.

It’s difficult to single any one band member out for praise from such a set. Singer Sean Sullivan has a grade A rock voice and the ability to tone it up or down as only the best can (Gillan, Coverdale, Page and co). Bassist Andrew Brockman managed to contort himself into unbelievably oblique angles during each song that suggest he would be an easy Limbo World Champion if there were such a contest for musicians. Drummer Zac Shoopman attacked his kit with an unrelenting vengeance the whole set. Maybe Bryson Willoughby’s guitar playing gets the nod as best performance? He reliably found the right groove for a disparate number of sytle changes to prove his Prog-Rock credentials.

Best moments for me were when Willoughby and Sullivan joined forces for dual lead guitar harmonies. I’m a sucker for that Thin Lizzy/Allman Brothers Rock sound. Interesting that the pair were duelling not both with Les Pauls. Sure, Sullivan had a Gold-Top Gibson, but Willoughby joined in with a Fender Telecaster. The result was always one of those icing on the top of the cake feelings that happens when you think a tune can’t get any better. – and then it does! ‘Holy Ghost’ is a good example.

Suffice to say that I liked them so much that I bought the band’s sophomore (second) album ‘The Infinite Hope’ which it (selflessly!) proclaims “Features the World’s most gregarious and electric superhero Rock n’ Roll Team of all time!” of which I would only query the “of all time” claim. You can insert your own fave band name here (mine would be Thin Lizzy). Having said that, I certainly haven’t seen any band that has surpassed Mojo Thunder for effort. 10/10 guys. To quote their lyric on ‘Holy Ghost’: “Hey, hey, Rock n Roll, ain’t nobody coming to save your soul!” Or maybe to get at the band’s sound you need to consider Bryson Willoughby’s lyric from the song ‘Greetings from western Art’: “People call it rock n roll. I just call it faster rhythm n blues”. Which may just be the simplest and most effective description of Rock music ever made.

Quite an act to follow then. I don’t know where Mike Zito was when Mojo Thunder were strutting their stuff but he was clearly aware that something special had gone down. “Weren’t they something?!” he remarked during his own set. It reminded me somewhat of seeing Doctor Feelgood some years ago playing after a younger band who also breathed fire. The Feelgood’s felt good under their own skin and knew they had the songs and the chops to blow the youngsters away.

The challenge was that Mike Zito didn’t have the pure Pop power of a dozen Wilko Johnson hits to plug into though. I personally would have loved to have seen the ‘Blood Brothers’ tour-de-force’ that he brought with him alongside Albert Castiglia not so long ago to the Harmonie this time to Rockpalast. In the event, this was a pared -down show with just Mike’s trusted rhythm section of Matthew Johnson on drums and Doug Byrkit on bass. Whilst there is no way that Zito would not play his heart out on a stage anywhere, there was no way the trio could match the energy of Mojo Thunder by purely playing good Blues alone.

Kicking off with ‘Mississippi Nights’ from 2018’s ‘First Class Life’ there was plenty of Blues well played, but no way that the trio could tap into the earlier band’s energy. That said, the high points were certainly higher than with the youngsters.

Sad to say that the concert’s actual highest point for me was undoubtedly Mike Zito’s lowest point in his life. A few months ago I played a song on the same Harmonie stage in memory of my own father. I remember that I couldn’t actually see the audience because of the stage-lights in my eyes. But, because of that moment, I know just what Mike was seeing and feeling as he looked up to the heavens singing ‘Forever My Love’. The song was written as his wife Laura was dying of Cancer. She never got to hear the final cut. There were tears in Mike’s eyes though this evening, and I felt them. I would guess that even those who didn’t know the provenance of the song would have felt the moment.

The same emotion can be found on ‘Life is Hard’ the title track from Mike’s frighteningly honest disc of last year. Can there be a lyric more serious than “Life is hard – and then you die!”? Well yes, there can be. it’s also on Mike’s ‘Life is Hard’ disc and it’s on a song called ‘Death don’t have no mercy’. It comes from a place you really don’t want to stay in. At any rate, those moments reach a place in your heart that the likes of Mojo Thunder in all their infancy can’t get to yet.

Zito finishes with a couple of powerful numbers in ‘Back Problems’ and a final tour-de-force in ‘Judgement Day’ which leans on another era beyond that of Mojo Thunder, channeling heavily into Led Zeppelin’s ‘Whole Lotta Love‘ and ‘Kashmir’ and offering late chances for Birkit and Johnson to shine. Johnson’s drums take up the challenge, but somehow Birkit still seems subdued. All in all, the highs during Mike Zito’s set were the highest of the evening and you couldn’t get Mike Zito to play a bad set if you forced him at knifepoint – the man has too much class and ability for that to happen. But I was left wishing that his addition to the Rockpalast archive was more explosive and deserving of his rich talents. The good news is that a new Blood Brothers disc with Albert Castiglia is on the way.