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Diesel played Tilley's Devine Café last night (24 September 2005). Diesel was born in the USA but has lived most of his life in Australia. He made his name with his band's 1989 self-titled release Johnny Diesel & The Injectors - an excellent album of blues-inspired loud rock. After reinventing himself as Diesel, and later releasing an album or two under his real name, Mark Lizotte, he has reemerged once again as Diesel. In 2004 he released Singled Out, an album of acoustic performances, combining studio and live performances, containing mostly previously recorded material, but also a few new songs.

Apart from a couple of new songs, last night's solo acoustic performance featured material from Singled Out. It was a very similar performance to one I saw at Tilley's on 23 September 2004... although that's not necessarily a bad thing.

Diesel opened with One More Time. After this song I would have been happy for Diesel to finish, without encore, and let me get home to bed. Was it that bad? No! One More Time, originally release on Diesel's 1992 album Hepfidelity is one the best Australian songs of the 1990s. Diesel obviously thinks it is OK too - he included 2 versions on his 1993 collection The Lobbyist. This performance was wonderful.

Last night Diesel played and sang his heart out - his voice was awesome and his guitar playing inspired. Diesel's voice can only be described as soulful. When he's not singing, he's dishing out notes in a screaming falsetto, or just producing with rhythmic noise. His guitar playing is blues-based rock, fused with funk and many other influences - he's a master of the instrument, using it to play an effortless blend of rhythm, lead and percussion. The combination is a huge sound for a solo acoustic performance. I suppose some of the credit has to go to his sound engineer... although he did have a few problems with feedback last night.

Other songs performed included Don't Need Love and Cry In Shame, originally from Johnny Diesel & The Injectors, and other tracks from his solo outings such as Tip Of My Tongue, One More Time, 15 Feet Of Snow and Come To Me. There was also his rather large interpretation of Everybody's Talkin'.

Diesel's performance was excellent and I'd recommend seeing him if you have the opportunity. However, I'd personally like to see a different performance from him next time. Perhaps with a band - the last time I saw him in this setting was probably 1993 - or performing a different selection of songs...