Walter Trout at Islington Assembly Hall Review

Live Review: Walter Trout + Laura Evans

Islington Assembly Hall, October 18^th, 2026

Reviewer / Photographer – Paul Dubbelman

Concluding a 14-day run of UK shows on his ‘Sign Of The Times‘ tour, Walter Trout delivered a stellar performance at a sold-out Islington Assembly Hall. Across eleven songs, Walter, and the band (Jon Trout – Guitar, Roland Bakker – Keys, John Avila – Bass, Kev Hickman – Drums), gave us a masterclass in understated guitar mastery and regaled us with tales from a long and eventful career.

Following a short set from Laura Evans, Walter strode onto the stage, beaming smile, and arms spread wide as if he wanted to embrace the entire audience. From that walk-on through to the closing ‘The Parting Glass‘, the warmth, the humility, the sheer joy of performing pervaded the entire set. Before launching into ‘I Can Tell‘, Trout tells the crowd that he is happy to be here. In fact, given the life he has led, He is happy to be anywhere. After a couple more songs, Walter hugs his guitar to his chest as he pays tribute to John Mayall and talks openly about his early life, the different bands, the drink and the drugs, and how conversations with Mayall and a chance meeting with Carlos Santana set him on the road to a far healthier lifestyle, and dedicates a verse of ‘Say Goodbye To The Blues‘ to Mr Mayall. Walter proudly declares that he has been clean now for 39 years.

Will Wilde, introduced by Trout as “The greatest harmonica player on Planet Earth,” joins the band for ‘Artificial‘ where scorching guitar meets scorching harmonica and Trout decries the artificial among us. ‘The Blues Came Callin’‘ sees Walter and Will trading fiery lick after fiery lick to the clear delight of the crowd. Show-opener Laura Evans joins Walter to duet on ‘Broken‘. The cover of John Lee Hooker’s ‘It Serves You Right To Suffer‘ gives each band member the chance to show their individual skills in an extended jam session – Jon Trout takes centre stage with a psychedelic guitar break, John Avila shows the fluency of a 5-string bass in the right hands with what can only be described as a lead bass solo before treating us to a unique Recorder solo, and a stirring drum solo from the “amazing” Kev Hickman, before the band sign off with ‘Best You’ve Got‘. There is no encore as such, but Walter comes to the front of the stage and delivers a heartfelt a cappella version of ‘The Parting Glass‘, a powerful and moving end to a fine show.

Walter Trout is a survivor, clearly, and his ability to create a sense of warmth and intimacy in a venue the size of Islington Assembly Hall gives a fair measure of the man himself. His joy in playing with his band is writ large on his face throughout the set, his pride in his family obvious in his comments and his zest for life clear to all. Those emotions come tumbling off the stage and infect the watching audience with a sense of well-being that certainly I have never experienced at any other concert. Watching Walter Trout is a profoundly moving experience.