Live Review: Erja Lyytinen + Ross Harding

The Half Moon, Putney October 15^th, 2026

Reviewer / Photographer – Paul Dubbelman

Finnish blues-rocker Erja Lyytinen brought her particular brand of heavy blues-rock to The Half Moon, Putney on the penultimate night of her European tour celebrating her half-century on this planet. The trio delivered a storming set, featuring tracks from her 2024 Album ‘Smell The Roses‘ along with a few from her back catalogue in front of a good-sized crowd. Opening the night was South African Dark-Blues specialist Ross Harding with a short solo set that rewarded the early-arrivers with some deep, dark blues that set the right mood for the evening.

Ross took to the stage, armed only with an Acoustic guitar and a few pedals, settled himself down and launched into ‘Grinning‘, his interpretation of Son House’s ‘Grinning in Your Face‘.  Dark, powerful, and chilling, it was a perfect introduction to Harding’s strong vocal style and dextrous guitar work on his Half Moon debut. As he said, first impressions count, and I’d say he made the right impression, and a strong connection with the crowd as well. ‘Blood and Bones‘, a groove-heavy song with a room-filling sound achieved through judicious use of the pedals gave us more insight into the soul of the man before he introduced his latest release, a rework of the White Stripes classic ‘Seven Nation Army‘. In Harding’s hands this becomes a menacing, deeply dark track that digs deep into the soul. To lighten the mood, the crowd join in on ‘John The Revelator‘ before Ross closes out with his atmospheric, slide-laden version of the Robert Johnson classic ‘If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day‘.  One of the measures of a good support act is if their set seems far too short and in Ross Harding’s performance, this was definitely true.

Setlist

1. Grinning
2. Blood & Bones
3. Seven Nation Army
4. John The Revelator
5. If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day

After a short break to refresh and refill, Erja’s band – drummer Jesse Lehto and bassman Heikki Saarenkunnas took to the stage, followed in close order by the lady herself, to enthusiastic cheers. Launching straight into ‘Ball and Chain‘, it was clear that Erja was not going to be taking any prisoners tonight. This was a high octane, full on performance from start to finish, and a consummate demonstration of why Lyytinen is rightly known as the Queen of Slide.

Erja continued to give a melodic rock masterclass throughout the set, covering every inch of the stage, and firing off blistering solo after blistering solo, while still delivering a strong vocal performance. ‘You Talk Dirty‘ was another crowd-mover, the combined power of bass and drums bringing people’s hands together, with Erja’s voice and guitar sitting comfortably over the top. By now and to be fair, long before this point, Erja had captured the spines of those watching and as the band started ‘Stoney Creek‘, you could see the crowd shuffling and grooving in time to the deep blues rhythms.

The Set closed with ‘The Ring‘ a true groover of a song with the band all working their socks off to deliver a sonic wall of noise. The band left the stage but were soon called back by loud and enthusiastic shouts for more. Erja duly obliged with a killer version of ‘Wedding Day‘, fast paced lyrics, an orgy of slide guitar, and driving drums, that somehow slipped into a teaser of Sabbath’s ‘Iron Man‘ that then morphed into ‘La Vie En Rouge‘ before returning back to the main theme. It was clear that the band were having a lot of fun here, and that sense of fun was highly infectious, as evidenced by the length Merch queue after the show.

The tour now continues over in Europe where fans will no doubt be treated to similar High octane, driving performances.

Setlist

1. Ball and Chain
2. Smell the Roses
3. Going to Hell
4. Hard as Stone
5. Dragonfly
6. Abyss
7. One Thing I Won´t Change
8. Wings to Fly
9. You Talk Dirty
10. Stoney Creek
11. The Ring
12. Encore: Wedding Day

© All photographs are copyright of Paul Dubbelman/Dubbel Xposure Photography. They may not be altered or used without express permission.