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June 8, 2023

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Martin Barre, former guitarist for Jethro Tull, celebrated the bands legacy by playing deep album cuts and rarities in his brand new show.

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The tour titled, A Brief History of Tull, kicked off last night at The Kent Stage.  Martin and his crack four-piece band that features Dan Crisp on vocals and guitar, Alan Thomson on bass and drummer Terl Bryant, had been in town for three days to prepare and rehearse for the upcoming tour.  

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All the rehearsal paid off as the band sounded incredibly tight and Crisp's voice is very similar to that of Ian Anderson.  This show features multi-media images and videos that are projected on a huge screen that is behind the band.

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The show started with Barre playing an acoustic guitar on stage by himself.  He was soon joined by the band as they went into "Some Day the Sun Won't Shine for You."

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He then switched to his electric guitar for "Cat's Squirrel" which let long time fans know that this was not going to be an ordinary "greatest hits" type of show.

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Unlike other solo shows that he has done, Barre then went to the first instrument that he learned how to play... the flute!  He is quite good at that instrument as well and showed his skill on "We Used To Know" and another song in the second set.

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Through out the show, there were scrolls that were projected on the screen that told different stories of how he and the band progressed through the decades.

 

After playing for just over an hour, Barre finally addressed the audience by quipping, "And now for our second song."  He then thanked everyone for attending and admitted he was a bit nervous in debuting this new  tour by saying he was desperate for a drink.

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After a twenty minute intermission, the band continued on with the deep album cuts such as, "Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow,"  "Protect and Survive," "Bestie" and an acoustic and an electric version of "Under Wraps."

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Barre addressed the crowd again by thanking them again for attending and saying that these songs "need to be played."  The audience responded with a roar.

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He then said that he wasn't going to leave the stage and pretend that he wasn't going to come back.  He noted that the songs were on the set list so they were going to play them.

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With that, the show closed with two Tull classics, "Too Old To Rock and Roll ,Too Young To Die" and "Locomotive Breath."

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It was a great evening of classic Jethro Tull songs played by one of the men responsible for creating them.

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I'm happy Martin chose The Kent Stage to kick off his brand new tour.

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Photos and review by Greg Drugan

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