Anthony Gomes - La Belle Angele, Edinburgh

Canadian born Anthony Gomes has been busy forging a serious reputation for himself in the blues rock scene since the late 90’s, and has earned the personal endorsement of his friend and hero, Blues-God BB King, amongst others.

He’s played Edinburgh before, but at smaller venues. Tonight, the 600-capacity “La Belle Angele” is positively buzzing… a testament to the organic fanbase growth that comes with putting out decent records, then putting in solid time out on the road to support them. Speaking of which, his latest album “Praise The Loud” cracked the Top 20 in the Scottish album chart. Anthony says he’s always been criticised for being ‘Too bluesy for rock, and too rocky for blues”. So is the self-professed Jack-of-both-trades a master of both, or does he fall through the gap between them? Let’s find out!

The lights dim, and the familiar riff of ‘It’s A Long Way To The Top’ by AC/DC rings out. The choice of intro tape is Anthony’s tribute to the late, great Bon Scott, and it’s especially appropriate in Edinburgh due to the bagpipe solo! Gomes and Co. set the pace for the evening by kicking off with ‘Painted Horse’ – the first track off his 2022 album. It’s a rousing thumper of a song with a chant at the end that does a good job of getting Edinburgh going.

Flanked by Jacob Mreen on bass, and Chris Whited on drums, the sound is classic 3 piece whiskey-drenched rock. Gomes’ crunchy riffs are interlaced with bluesy solo licks, which wouldn’t be possible without the back up of Mreen’s rock solid, fat bassline.

Keen to show off his new album ‘Praise The Loud’, we get 7 tracks from the 2025 release. Anthony is proud of its chart performance, taking particular delight that ‘ugly old rockers’ can still knock all the pretty little manufactured pop starlets out of the sales charts once in a while.

As proficient, groovy and soulful as he is on the guitar, he’s also hilarious on the microphone in between song banter. He regales the Edinburgh crowd with tales of love, lust, booze and rock’n’roll, finding particular amusement in something we have but over on the other side of the pond they don’t… Tesco’s! According to him, it’s a great place to meet your future ex-wife. This anecdote leads nicely into ‘True That’, a tale of meeting a classy young lady who “Had twenty husbands, but only two of them were hers!”

The stand-out song of the night was ‘Come Down’. It’s not a ballad, but it is a bluesy heartfelt love letter to Gomes’ hero, mentor and inspiration – BB King. It’s a song of grief, an acknowledgement that no-one has been able to fill his shoes, and it’s a heartfelt plea for King to ‘Come Down’ from heaven, and give us some of that old magic just once more.

Chris has played the drums with solidarity all night – the perfect match for Jacob’s groove orientated bass playing – but his real time to shine comes at the end with his drum solo that showcases his style, flair and showmanship.

Between the three of them, they’ve had Edinburgh eating out of the palms of their hands. From the moment Anthony walked out on stage he oozed cool confidence and swagger, and his smile beamed from ear to ear. If I could say one thing to him it would be that now BB King is sadly no longer with us, it’s up to you now, Brother.

He promised to come back and see us next year, and I assure you Edinburgh will have a warm welcome when he returns.

Five Stars *****

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