Joel Hoekstra & Brandon Gibbs – Bannermans – Edinburgh – 28th May 2024

Another soggy night in Edinburgh, but thankfully I wasn’t held up by the floods. But it was wetter than a middle-aged woman reading 50 Shades Of Grey. However, it was the perfect night to be wowed once again by the blues-tinged vocal talent of Brandon Gibbs (Devil City Angels) and the guitar wizardry of Joel Hoekstra (Trans Siberian Orchestra, Accept,) Whitesnake) performing acoustically. 

Having caught this duo last year, it was rude not to have a gander a 2nd time. I’m so glad I did. 

Coming off the back of the Monsters Of Rock Cruise this was the start of their 12-dates in a 13-day tour of the UK, Scotland & Ireland. If tonight’s performance is anything to go by, this is going to be a fabulous run of shows. 

Brandon and Joel kick off the proceedings with 2 tracks from The Devil City Angels (No Angels, Boneyard) before kicking into an outstanding rendition of the Poison classic Every Rose, which is closely followed by a version of Whitesnakes Love Aint No Stranger.

Brandon gets a chance to show off his guitar skills (and he has a few) which then climaxes into a jam of the legendary Led Zeppelin track Kashmir. Hoekstra and Gibbs then treat us with This Town from Brandons’ catalog of tunes. 

It was at this point that the setlist was abandoned so the duo could have a bit of fun, first with Dirty Deeds (Done Dirt Cheap), Thunderkiss ’65 (White Zombie) and then launching into an incredible Whole Lotta Love before coming back to the set with the Doors classic Love Me Two Times. Although Joel doesn’t consider himself a singer, he does a bloody good job of convincing the audience that he is.

Brandon takes over vocal duties once again for Rich For Life before handing the spotlight to Joel for an incredible Classical Jazz Fusion solo culminating in playing the Slayer riff from South Of Heaven. If they’d performed that track acoustically, I would’ve been as excited as a dog with 2 dicks. (The world needs a Slayer unplugged tribute album especially if performed by Brandon and Joel.)

The evening winds up with a succession of awesome tracks in the form of the Poison classic Something To Believe In and Here I Go Again by Whitesnake. This is where the Edinburgh audience firmly came into their own, singing their absolute hearts out. 

Brandon and Joel are like brothers. You can’t help but smile along with these guys who are having a great time in each other’s company, telling a few stories and playing songs by bands they’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of. It’s infectious. 

Fingers crossed they’re back again soon as I’ll be back down the front having it large.

Catch Joel and Brandon on the following dates: