Bluesy, ballsy garage rock (From Western Telegraph)

Bluesy, ballsy garage rock

The Chicago Music Explosion Queens Hall, Narberth September 5th

Chicago, described by some as the USA's real capital, has once again sent some of its finest musicians on a UK tour in the form of the Chicago Music Explosion.

Introducing the evening's eagerly anticipated and explosive music, was the wiry transatlantic electricity of Scottish McMillan, a gem of a singer songwriter, brimming with slightly eccentric optimism, whose elemental torn up acoustic style was as far away from the standard earnestness, stools 'n' strumming offerings as you can get.

His rapid fire guitar playing had power, depth and intricacy; his stabbing style and sometime manic delivery descending into the dark and brooding, before rising to new heights. What a find this man is - even his tuning up sounded great.

We welcomed back the semi-acoustic bruised beauty of (increasingly glamourous) Melissa Zeimer's warm and illuminating voice that gave an intensity to her rootsy songs, which dealt in the main with relationship fallout, such as Stories, a song of recovery and renewal.

Then the bass lines kicked in, as the Convulsions took to the stage, playing high energy, bluesy, ballsy garage rock, combined with old style R 'n' B, driven by tour manager Ben Ruth's raspy harmonica and caustic vocals.

The whole CME package, although inspiring, was not as tight as last year, probably because this was the first gig of their UK tour. But any doubts were soon completely dispelled by the full-on rock assault of The Ghettobillies and their turbulent climatic energy release of impressive proportions. This band are truly musical chameleons, effortlessly mining the seams of rock's sub genres, with a healthy tongue in cheek quality, a nice degree of humour and just the right amount of flailing hair at selected moments, plus appropriate rock shrieks - great ironic rock.

A pastiche of current rock trends they may be, but it works. And in the small but perfectly formed vocalist Rob, they have the showman rockstar, all swagger and sexy insouciance.

Only Rob could get away with the memorable lines 'fat bottomed girls who make the rocking world go round'. And so American bands look set to continue to make ears ring well into the foreseeable future.