{"id":29961,"date":"2025-09-05T05:30:57","date_gmt":"2025-09-05T09:30:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=29961"},"modified":"2025-09-10T12:26:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-10T16:26:47","slug":"album-review-dave-specter-live-at-space","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/05\/album-review-dave-specter-live-at-space\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Dave Specter \u2013 Live at Space"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-29962\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dave_specter_space.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"350\" height=\"350\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dave_specter_space.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dave_specter_space-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/dave_specter_space-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/>SPACE is a popular club in the Chicago area; its calendar includes top local, regional and national acts. Being a hotbed of electric blues, the venue has its share of blues and blues-adjacent bills. This concert document of a March 2024 show captures guitarist <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?s=%22dave+specter%22\">Dave Specter<\/a> onstage with Marty Binder (drums), Brother John Kattke (keys) and bassist Rodrigo Mantovani.<\/p>\n<p>The set is evenly mixed between Specter originals and covers. The former cover the musical landscape from blues to rock and back again; the latter category features tunes by Don Nix, Sonny Boy Williamson and more. Specter\u2019s \u201cRumba &amp; Tonic\u201d mixes rumba rhythms with strong flavors of New Orleans jazz. And of course specter\u2019s strong and clean lead guitar leads the way. The simmering \u201cAlley Walk\u201d chugs along in a mostly one-chord fashion, allowing plenty of space for some slow-burn axework.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHomework\u201d is standard blues with vocal, but it\u2019s nicely done with some fiery lead work. The loping \u201cBlues from the Inside Out\u201d is in a classic mold as well. \u201cOn Your Way Down\u201d is a smoky number with Specter\u2019s vocal out front; it has a vaguely Steely Dan vibe. \u201cMarch Through the Darkness\u201d moves in a mainstream melodic rock direction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cChicago Style\u201d is just what it says on the tin. Not so for a tasty reading of Don Nix\u2019s \u201cSame Old Blues,\u201d which would have fit nicely on the <i>Layla<\/i> album. \u201cThe Stinger\u201d serves up some lively and kinetic fretwork. \u201cDeep Elem Blues\u201d is nicely arranged, extremely well-played standard blues. \u201cBluebird Blues\u201d has a welcome retro feel with a late-night vibe. \u201cPonchatoula Way\u201d weds a familiar melody to a fun and irresistible tune, with one of the album\u2019s best vocal turns. <em>Live at SPACE<\/em> closes with a shuffling, high-energy \u201cRidin\u2019 High, filled with fireworks for all four players. Bravo!<\/p>\n<p><b>Personal addendum:<\/b> I had been looking forward to seeing Specter play live last autumn when he had a date in my neck o\u2019 the woods. But Tropical Storm Helene intervened with her flooding and destruction, and the opportunity was lost. This live album is the next best thing to being there (or to him being near here) so I\u2019m grateful for its timely appearance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>SPACE is a popular club in the Chicago area; its calendar includes top local, regional and national acts. Being a hotbed of electric blues, the venue has its share of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,65],"tags":[4765],"class_list":["post-29961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-review","tag-dave-specter","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29961"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30101,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29961\/revisions\/30101"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}