No wonder Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse are a band on the rise

Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse at Arlington Arts, 2nd May 2023. Review by Brian Harrington

It's not often that you see a band receive a standing ovation on a Tuesday night, but Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse thoroughly earned and deserved it, playing an all action single set of very nearly 2 hours of great New Orleans inspired Blues/Rock that had people dancing in the aisles from the get-go. This 5 piece is built around the vocal talents of Louisiana born Greta Valenti and the guitar excellence of Robin Davey, the youngest ever inductee in to the British Blues Hall of Fame, and former member of The Hoax, a band widely quoted as hugely influential in the revival of blues in Britain. Their music is loaded with catchy riffs and they never stop moving, even taking regular excursions out in to the auditorium while playing and singing. By the third song in, the bass player, Stephen Mildwater, was dancing with audience members at the side of the stage. The line-up of superb musicians is completed by Tom Rasulo, drums, and Emma Jonson, Keyboards.

Opening with Trouble Is Coming from their 2022 album Good Times, End Times, they launched straight in to Gris Gris and kept going at full tilt with hardly a pause for breath.

Highlights for me included Alone, Is This The Blues? and Thrill Me.

Towards the end of the set the band was joined by Jon Amor, Robin Davey's former bandmate in The Hoax for two of his tracks, Juggernaut and Fistful Of Dirt.

The lengthy and hotly demanded encore session including Fill Me Up and Watching The World Go Down was massively popular and I got the impression that they would have continued for even longer had they been allowed to.

Great music and a great performance. No wonder Beaux Gris Gris & The Apocalypse are a band on the rise.

Seriously well worth catching live.