Review: The Zac Schulze Gang – Live And Loud
The Zac Schulze Gang – Live And Loud
Format: CD – Digital / Label: Flatiron Recordings
Release: 2024
Text: Tom Wouters
‘Live And Loud’ is a highly exciting live debut album from The Zac Schulze Gang, a debut album that shows a band firmly rooted in the tradition of British Power Blues Rock from the late 60s and early 70s. The influence of artists such as the Yardbirds (Clapton), (Peter Green’s) Fleetwood Mac and Rory Gallagher is unmistakably present and the whole thing is topped with a good splash of MC5 garage rock. Or as singer/guitarist Zac Schulze puts it: “We’re just the three of us, so we have to make a lot of noise to get a full sound.”
And we immediately hear that full sound in the Spencer Davis Group cover I’m A Man, which is given a hard MC5 garage rock version that will be a hit especially in the USA. It is not without reason that the band is touring the USA this summer as a supporting act for Samantha Fish. That Rory Gallagher is one of Zac Schulze’s favourite guitarists is clear on the rest of the album. Hole In My Pocket has that typical British up-tempo blues rock sound that we mainly know from Gallagher’s performances. This is taken to a higher level in Dry Spell with a great bass solo by Anthony Greenwell and a drum solo by brother Ben Schulze.
Then rest returns for a little while in a strikingly beautiful slow version of Rufus Thomas’ Walkin’ The Dog with great guitar work from Zac. But immediately afterwards we go back into top gear with a rougher than rough version of the Dr. Feelgood classic She Does It Right (written by Wilko Johnson). This is followed by Rory Gallagher’s I Fall Apart, with beautiful vocals and guitar. The performance ends with Rory Gallagher’s well-known show stopper Messin’ With The Kid, which transitions halfway into Peter Green’s Oh Well.
It is inevitable that The Zac Schulze Gang’s debut album is a live album. This is a band that you should definitely experience live. A highly exciting new band from that almost endless line of British blues rock bands, who really shake things up live.
Tracks:
01. I’m A Man
02. Hole In My Pocket
03. Dry Spell
04. Walkin The Dog
05. She Does It Right
06.I Fall Apart
07. Messin’ With The Kid Oh Well
Website: https://www.zacschulzegang.rocks/