Chuck Prophet – 14/10/14 – Bush Hall

I first encountered Chuck Prophet when the song ‘Ford Econoline’ appeared on my radar. A road trip song with a Talking Heads reference, kicked off with a Townshend-style acoustic rhythm; I was there. The album, ‘Night Surfer’ went straight on to heavy repeat and I went looking for a ticket.

Prophet first appeared in a latter line-up of Green on Red, one of those indie-rock bands that could have been R.E.M. but weren’t. Nowadays he has a band - The Mission Express with a flexible line-up normally including his partner Stephanie on keyboards. Sometimes they tour as a duo. As far as I know, Prophet has never troubled the charts, nor any large venues, but he did do a song on the Andrew Marr show in 2017.

Musically, Chuck Prophet sits between Bruce Springsteen and Alice Cooper, based on classic rock’n’roll and pulling in influences from anywhere and everywhere. A vein of dark humour extends from the music to his stage persona - a little Nick Cave, a little Springsteen and a whole hunk’a Vegas-era Elvis. I've even seen him thrash on the floor ala James Brown, complete with imaginary cape. He writes songs about baseball, and obscure pop musicians, and the life of a touring musician and sometimes just about the joy of being alive. It’s this optimism that particularly appeals to me. In Prophet’s universe, the bad times are just preparing you to enjoy the good times even more.

At the Bush Hall, Chuck wore a pink suit and a Stetson. My recollection is that he and the band weren’t particularly animated that night - maybe it was the venue, which is a ballroom with no sound absorption to speak of. It could have been the cramped stage. It could have been the duff sound mix.

But despite all of that, the music was fine and I enjoyed the gig. I was three years later that I found out just how utterly fantastic they could be, but we had that t-shirt a while back.