Armed with an acoustic guitar and sitting on a chair, Alan & Stevie kick off their first set with A Good Day For The Blues… Video, Photos

The Nimmo Brothers – Mystical Theater, Enschede April 16, 2024.

It’s an ordinary Tuesday evening, mid-April. The cold rain hit the windows mercilessly today and I took out the winter coat that I had already put away.

But cold or not, tonight will undoubtedly be a heated evening! It is a special evening in the Mystiek Theater in Enschede, none other than the Scottish The Nimmo Brothers will give one of their rare acoustic performances here!

The blues rock formation The Nimmo Brothers was founded in 1995 by brothers Stevie and Alan Nimmo in Glasgow. Over the years, the Nimmo brothers have recorded several albums, of which Moving On dates back to 1998.

This was soon followed by Coming Your Way (2001), New Moon Over Memphis in 2003, the fantastic live album Live At Cottiers from 2004, Missing Pieces (2009) and Brother To Brother in 2012. The band attracted full houses everywhere and was popular indoors. – and abroad.

In 2009, Stevie moved to France and after a few years, after recovering from throat cancer, started his Stevie Nimmo Trio. In the meantime, Alan had formed his band King King, but both brothers also continued to perform regularly as The Nimmo Brothers. For example, in 2015 they toured Europe on the occasion of their 20th anniversary and received the British Blues Award as best blues band in both 2015 and 2016.

The Nimmo Brothers also acquired an unprecedentedly large and grateful fan base in our Low Countries. Actually, both King King, the Stevie Nimmo Trio and The Nimmo Brothers are/were extremely popular! My first live experience with the Nimmo Brothers dates back to 2012 during the Kwadendamme Festival and I was immediately sold. Life was never the same!

The brothers are strongly influenced by Free, Paul Kossoff, B.B., among others. King, Gary Moore and Peter Green. By the way, Stevie also likes good country music. His 2010 solo album Wynds of Life contains some tasteful country songs. In addition, both are top guitarists and both have a fantastic blues throat.

Since 2020, Stevie has rejoined his younger brother and they have been playing together for several years in the very successful five-piece formation King King. After the difficult Covid period, live performances are fortunately taking off again and the band is performing frequently.

While King King is currently successfully touring through Europe, the Nixenmeer team led by programmer Chris Wobben managed to bring in an exceptional act for this evening: The Nimmo Brothers acoustic! It is truly a rare occasion to see the brothers working acoustically together. This will be a delight for those present in our cozy and intimate Mystical Theater. And indeed, the Mystical Theater is already full well before the hall officially opens. Sensible people!

Armed with an acoustic guitar and sitting on a chair, Alan & Stevie kick off their first set with A Good Day For The Blues…how appropriate. Between the two of them there is a thermos with hot tea, a jar of honey and two cups on a table. That certainly looks very cozy and relaxing.

A beautiful interaction follows between two exceptionally good guitarists, who are in no way inferior to each other. Exciting each other, sometimes provocative and complementing each other, brotherly musicality flows through their veins. They know how to get an ultimate and sensitive sound from their guitar and their voice. They know each other inside and out and they enjoy playing 100%. For them too, performances like these are the icing on the cake when touring and being ‘on the road’ for a long time.

Between the songs beautiful stories are told about the past, about writing songs, about illnesses and about fears. Also how Alan simply forgot to take his acoustic guitar with him on this tour and so had to borrow two acoustic guitars from our Erik tonight!

Alan takes care of the guitar solos in a fantastic way, while Stevie mainly sings the songs with that wonderful voice of his. But together the brothers are gold, nothing more and nothing less. What emotion, musicality and passion from these men. Electrically amplified they are already phenomenal, acoustically they are magnificent.

Two sets with songs from their entire (mostly collective) career follow, supplemented with some beautiful covers. Such as John Hiatt’s Feels Like Rain, in which we can all sing along, but also with the pounding Rush Hour. The audience enjoys it and that energy remains present all evening.

The first set ends with a personal favorite of mine, the emotional Movin On, from the 2012 album Brother To Brother. What an incredible pleasure to hear this song here live and right in front of me. Stevie’s voice still has that same power and power to move me.

After a pleasant break, during which the other band members of King King also appear to have arrived, the performance starts again with some quiet songs, the beautiful If You Need Me, Call Out My Name. But not much later the pace picks up again and there is another feast of recognition with a flaming version of Peter Green’s Oh Well. The crowd goes wild!

Just like with B.B. King’s The Thrill Is Gone, a classic that has also been on their set list for years and that they have completely customized. Very nice!

How beautiful such an acoustic concert is, relatively simple but has so much impact, precisely because of that simplicity. The direct contact with the audience is honest and uncomplicated. And in the meantime you can even sip some tea. And that audience also enjoys these ‘stripped-down’ circumstances. It hangs on the brothers’ lips, their Scottish accent requires a listening ear. No Dutch Disease here, what a relief.

Not much later we hear the penetrating You Stopped The Rain, written by Alan during a tense period. An emotional song that he wrote in response to the illness of his big brother Stevie. “What would I do, how would I deal with it.” Recognizable and sensitive.

This magical evening passes in one big rush and ends with the Jimmy Reed cover Baby What You Want Me To.