Midnight Drive Merced CA

Midnight Drive

The Kinsey Report

Alligator Records, 1989

REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/18/1998

The only time I almost got thrown out of a bar was in 1990, when"Duke" Williams and I went to go see The Kinsey Report andinterview them for the radio station I was working for. (The reasonwe almost made a butt-first exit was because I was 19 and Larry was17; I had to do a lot of sweet-talking to the owner to convince her to let usstay.)

Lead guitarist/vocalist Donald Kinsey and crew blew us away,covering not only songs from their then-latest release Midnight Drive but also kicking into a killer version of BobMarley's "Stir It Up". (Kinsey had once been a member of TheWailers, so he knew exactly what he was playing.) Sitting rightnext to the amplifier, I'm honestly surprised that I can still hearafter that show.

The problem is that after almost nine years, Midnight Drive has lost a lot of its then-sharp edge. Italso confirms the truth about a lot of bands: they're betterlive.

With the exception of guitarist Ron Prince, The Kinsey Report isa family affair; besides Donald, brothers Kenneth and Ralph roundout the band on bass and drums, respectively. This could explain alot about the band's musical tightness. The problem is that none ofthe instruments seem to want to take the forefront, and when someof them do, they seem to hop out at inopportune moments.