Music / Reviews
Review: Rosalie Cunningham, Louisiana
As the Louisiana’s online Hall of Fame reminds us, this bijou venue has provided the launchpad for many a stellar career (mysteriously absent are Airbourne, who played here in 2008 and swiftly returned to headline the Hall Formerly Known as Colston). Not Rosalie Cunningham, though. As she reminds us, she first played here more that a decade ago with her band Purson. “Look how far I’ve come,” she quips with a grin.
First up are Sugar Witch, who appear to be from Birmingham and Texas and are tonight performing as a duo, though their normal configuration is as a quartet.
is needed now More than ever
Their music is of no fixed genre, but the gothic likes of Goblins seems to go down best with this audience and they manage to turn a cover of Bowie’s Life on Mars? into a garage rocker, which is quite some achievement.
Rosalie Cunningham’s failure to make any commercial headway remains something of a mystery, though her sheer bloody-minded independence probably has something to do with it. Her songwriting is magnificent, with a 70s prog edge that never sounds derivative, and her band are superb. The opening half of the set is dominated by new album To Shoot Another Day, beginning with the title track, which sounds like a Bond movie theme song in the making, and taking in the idiosyncratic likes of Heavy Pencil and The Smut Peddler.
“This is the only time you’ll see me drink red wine with ice,” she quips as the heat becomes oppressive and the air-conditioning struggles to cope in the packed venue. Donovan Ellington and the meandering Duet from Two Piece Puzzle are greeted like old friends. Then she dips back even further into Purson days for the hard-rocking Wool and straps on an initially malfunctioning acoustic guitar for the wonderfully proggy Tempest and the Tide.
Still rockin’ the 1973 Edgar Froese look, Rosie’s partner Rosco Wilson prefers to stay out of the limelight, but contributes backing vocals and some hugely impressive guitar work, while on the other side of the stage the animated keyboard player attacks his instrument with aplomb and delivers some suitably spacey interludes during equipment malfunctions.
In fact, the current incarnation of her band are firing on all cylinders despite the sweltering heat, with an effortlessly propulsive drummer and a stand-in bassist who’s hard to fault.
Either because it’s too hot or there’s no obvious place to retreat to, they remain on stage for the encore of Return of the Ellington and that hit-that-should-have-been Ride on My Bike. It seems selfish to hope that Rosalie remains rock’s best-kept secret, but so long as she does we’ll continue to enjoy shows as fabulous as this in Bristol’s tiddliest venues.
All pix by Mike Evans.
Read more: Bristol’s month in Metal and Prog: July 2026
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