By Andrew
Johnston – 05 January 2015
With arts
budget cuts threatening the future of Belfast's Out to Lunch festival, Saturday
night's sold-out show at the Black Box in Belfast must have been cause for
celebration for the organisers.
And the
crowd was in the mood to party too.
The full
house had assembled to see music veterans Nine Below Zero, firm favourites on
these shores since their debut Belfast gig in 1981, which famously sparked a
riot when people without tickets couldn't get in.
Now older,
greyer and carrying a little more weight, the reunited original line-up
nevertheless haven't lost the power to bust out high-energy rhythm and blues.
That's r 'n' b, as opposed to R&B, in case you were worried we were in hip
hop-infused, drum machine-backed, melismatic-sung territory.
Despite
looking like underworld enforcers who should be collecting protection money
from market-stall traders in London's East End, the only thing Nine Below Zero
extorted from the Belfast audience were dance moves.
Happily,
there were no rows of chairs or cabaret-style seating getting in the way of
punters shaking their stuff.
From
opening track Don't Point Your Finger at the Guitar Man to a closing jam on
Fleetwood Mac's Albatross, it was one tooth-shattering nugget after another for
nearly two hours.
High
points along the way included the ruthlessly catchy Three Times Enough and
Driving Down a One Way Street, as well as the closest thing Nine Below Zero
came to a hit, the mod-tinged Eleven Plus Eleven.
The latter
sounded as fresh as when the same four musicians - guitarist and vocalist
Dennis Greaves, harmonica player Mark Feltham, bassist Brian Bethell and
drummer Mickey Burkey - performed it on the pilot episode of classic sitcom The
Young Ones.
The entire
set was made up of the sort of songs you find yourself singing along with after
the first chorus, and indeed, long after you've left the gig.
"Keep
music live," urged Greaves during one of the band's rare breathers between
numbers, and in Nine Below Zero's capable hands, it certainly has a few more
years above ground yet.
Four
stars
