Saw Bob Dylan last night night in Berkeley. Quick and to the point: best Dylan show of the five I've seen to date (previous shows I've seen were summer of '97 at Great Woods in Mansfield, Mass. with Ani DiFranco; spring of 2005 at the Paramount Theater in Oakland with Merle Haggard; fall of 2007 at the Ryan Center in Kingston, RI with Elvis Costello; and this summer at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton, CA with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp).
His voice was clear and strong (relative for this period of his career, anyway) and he sounded like he was really enjoying the set. Spent part of the time at the keyboard, part of the time on guitar and harmonica, and part of the time singing without an instrument. Opened with an old Jesus song from his born again days, played some sweet new arrangements for "Mama, You've Been On My Mind" and "Cold Irons Bound," got the crowd all riled up with that "you think I'm over the hill" line in "Spirit On The Water" (just like he did at the Ryan Center), and best of all... NO opening acts, just Bob, with Charlie Sexton back in the band on guitar, and a nice long set in the open air. Show was sold out. He plays again at the Greek tonight (though I won't be there...)
Set list:
Gonna Change My Way Of Thinking The Man In Me Beyond Here Lies Nothin' Mama, You've Been On My Mind Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum I Don't Believe You My Wife's Home Town Spirit On The Water Cold Irons Bound The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll Highway 61 Revisited I Feel A Change Coming On Thunder On The Mountain Ballad Of A Thin Man
ENCORE: Like A Rolling Stone Jolene All Along The Watchtower
June 29 came up all too fast. Any faster and I would have forgotten that I had a ticket to see Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood at Oakland’s Oracle Arena that night. Fast as it came though, the show itself lasted a good long while – close to three hours by my rough estimate.
I never had much of a huge interest in seeing a live Clapton show. I’ve always felt that there was very little about his music since his Derek & the Dominoes days that truly excited me. There were some good spots in his solo career since then – 461 Ocean Boulevard certainly has its moments (“Mainline Florida” and “Let it Grow” especially), Backless is a once-in-a-while guilty pleasure for the 8-track deck, and the laid back Reptile had just enough variety for me to make it my favorite solo Clapton record of the ones I’ve heard to date (and those sweet backing vocals from the Impressions certainly didn’t hurt). But overall, his career excited me far less than that of, say, Jeff Beck.
But the prospect of seeing Clapton with Steve Winwood, now that had me sold. Clapton seems to be most inspired when working alongside a peer (i.e. Duane Allman in the Dominoes, or as reports from Japan earlier this year confirmed, with fellow Yardbirds alumnus Jeff Beck). Teaming with Winwood worked well enough in Blind Faith in '69, so I couldn't imagine it not working in 2009. I was pretty much right.
Basically, I got everything I was expecting: a hearty dose of Blind Faith tunes (all of side one of their lone album, in fact), some Traffic tunes, the bluesier side of Clapton, and – best of all – a Clapton who was ripping solo after inspired solo all night. He was alternately slow and deliberate, a fleet-fingered show-off, a precise picker, and an infectious riff master. And Winwood was easily the evening's superior vocalist and Clapton's equal on keyboard, occasionally even sparring with Clapton on guitar when he wasn’t perched at either his organ or his piano.
Highlights: Forgot how cool that riff in “Had to Cry Today” is; “After Midnight” was slowed down to a more leisurely pace, though not quite as slow as the ‘87 Michelob version; Clapton and Winwood trading verses on “Presence of the Lord” and “Forever Man”; Winwood’s breathtaking solo rendition of “The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys”; “Split Decision” emerged as a long-forgotten, lost gem from Winwood’s commercial peak in the ‘80s; and the spirited dual guitar jam at the conclusion of “Dear Mr. Fantasy” ended the show on a natural high… though as you can imagine, joints were being passed around.
[RANT: I wish the screaming lady next to me would have taken a toke of the joint being passed around in front of me, because she was just WAY too hyper. She was shrieking non-stop throughout the show, and ridiculously so. I mean, you know you’re drunk when you start complaining that Eric Clapton isn’t singing enough hits or saying anything about Michael Jackson. I think she nearly climaxed when he encored with “Cocaine.” And then she had the nerve to ask me what country I was from! Apparently, if I had answered something other than the United States, she would have wanted to sleep with me, but I like my landlord too much to bring home a woman who could drown out a fire alarm.]
Two more points worth mentioning: it wouldn’t be a Clapton show without some straight up blues, and there was plenty of that to go around. Those tunes (“Low Down,” “Sleeping in the Ground,” etc.) didn’t stick with me as well as the others, but they sure sounded great at the time. The best of these without a doubt, though, was Hendrix’s “Voodoo Chile.” No, not the more well-known “Voodoo Child (Slight Return)” that closes side 4 of Electric Ladyland, but the twice-as-long blues jam that closes side one of the original double LP. Winwood sang this one, but it was Clapton who intro’d the tune, singing along with the opening guitar melody: “I’m a voodoo chile / Lord knows I’m a voodoo chile.” It was at this very intro that it hit me: Winwood played organ on the original recording! Suffice to say, these guys did Hendrix proud.
Clapton couldn’t be bothered to say more than “hello!” and “thank you!” all night, but Winwood at least talked a bit to the audience before “Low Spark.” And still, the band wasn’t introduced, and since I didn’t do my research before the show, it didn’t quite register why the way the drummer was hitting his skins looked so familiar to me. It was because the guy was Abe Laboriel, Jr. – Paul McCartney’s drummer since 2001 (I've seen Paul eight times since 2002). Might be time for some glasses.
Thanks to ericclapton-online.com, we have not only a list of the band members, but also an audience-shot video of “Cocaine” from the show (posted by YouTube user taste4phree).
The band: Steve Winwood (vocals, piano, organ, electric guitar) Eric Clapton (electric and acoustic guitar, vocals) Chris Stainton (Keyboards) Willie Weeks (Bass) Abe Laboriel Jr. (Drums) Michelle John & Sharon White (Backing vocals)
The set list: Had to Cry Today Low Down After Midnight Presence of the Lord Sleeping in the Ground Glad Well Alright Too Bad Pearly Queen There’s a River Forever Man The Low Spark of High Heeled Boys Driftin’ How Long Layla Can’t Find My Way Home Split Decision Voodoo Chile
I finally caved in to curiosity and watched the official video for the cynically novel Alicia Keys-Jack White "Another Way to Die," commissioned for the latest installment in the James Bond franchise:
It was tough for me to watch this. Admittedly, a lot of that has to do with the pedigree of music that has consumed me lately. Look at the video in my previous post. Listen to the song. Listen to those lyrics. Even though the quality of the video is ramshackle by Hollywood standards, it's startlingly real. The camera lens could have been channeling your own pair of eyes, had you been standing in that very spot in the club. The sound may be less than perfect, but booming bass approximates what you would actually feel if you were standing by the club's PA. The music itself is unassailable. And the words work not only as lyrics, but as advice you can carry home with you, or to work, or anywhere, really.
And then the Nina Simone box set I'm digesting, and the Dylan set (reviews of which you'll be reading at Bullz Eye in short order) have been skewing my perspective. I clearly have a bias right now for music that comes from a place of relative purity.
Jack White and Alicia Keys both possess pure talent on their respective instruments, true. But this combination is... less than pure. I mean, it's technically good. They do complement each other sonically. But it's clearly novel seeing and hearing them together. It's a natural draw just contemplating the two of them collaborating. Wow, what must THAT sound like?
Well, it sounds exactly like what you'd expect - two monster talents with huge egos and powerful stage presence putting all their energy into projecting their musical personalities into a song that has little use beyond serving the film that catalyzed its creation, and enhancing the respective images of the stars who made it. Look at how they prance in the video. See how much emphasis is placed on Alicia sitting at the piano, Jack playing guitar, and Jack playing drums (which is another novel feature - look at how many instruments he plays!) in between sweet shots of both singers together at their microphones. See how little emphasis and few visual references are made to the Bond film.
What does this all mean, and why do I have this repulsive, empty feeling and an ache in my head after watching this video twice?
Why do I torture myself so?
I don't even care for Alicia Keys all that much. She possesses chops I can only ever dream of having. My issue is with how she uses them. Same with Jack White. I kind of dig the last Raconteurs album and the White Stripes' Elephant, and thought enough of Icky Thump to place it in my top ten albums of 2007, but just like the whiskey, a little Jack goes a long way. But I was curious, and even felt some sort of responsibility to know what these two pop culture titans were doing together, just like I had to hear what Timbaland did to Chris Cornell. Hearing those clips of the latter again, I suddenly feel a little better about Jack and Alicia...
Since I've been writing for Bullz Eye, my email address has been picked up by a bunch of publicists. I get so many press releases emailed to me that it's impossible to keep up with them all.
Sifting through the pile this morning, I went into quick-'n-dirty executive mode to make a dent at what I've missed recently. What I'm seeing is that lots of so-called "emo" pop-punk stuff comes my way. Don't get me wrong, it has value, but for the most part, the stuff from which it apparently descended, the decidedly non-pop D.C. hardcore of Rites of Spring, Dag Nasty, basically anything on Dischord Records, is more my cup of tea.
Take One Small Step for Landmines, for example. They're actually one of the better bands of this ilk, in that their recordings aren't maxed out with volume, and they don't look like they just spent $500 on a hairdo. Actually, the more I listen to this band, they kind of grow on me. But those sweet power-pop harmonies rubbing up against punked-up rock mix in my brain like oil and water. Blink 182 never did it for me either. I dig juvenilia, I dig punk rock, but not the way they mixed it with super-polished punk rock. It can be hard to explain exactly what excites me musically and what doesn't when just one quick listen can give me the answer in an instant, but I suppose it's just like choosing who to date or what to eat. You have a set of criteria that you go by, but on a moment's notice, your choices can confound others and even yourself when some unnamed quality you pick up on trumps all the rest.
Here are a couple other bands that I probably wouldn't go out of my way to cover in the face of the other assignments I have on deck, but still had me listening longer than the others sitting in my inbox. They're actually quite good, so see if they do it for you:
The Ting Tings: British new wave/punk group, throwback to the late '70s early '80s. Just a drummer and a frontwoman from the U.K. That crazy hooligan Calvin Harris remixed one of their songs too. From press release: "For the duo's recent limited edition UK single, 'Great DJ,' a Single of the Week in the NME, The Ting Tings recycled old 7" singles, inverted the covers and relabeled the sleeves with the band's name and song title using colored duct tape. Previous limited edition Ting Tings single campaigns have included a four city tour where the band invited the audience to decorate 100 blank 7" sleeves at each show. The lot decorated at each show were sold at the following gig." Sounds pretty awesome to me. Oh, to be a barhopping club goer in Manchester right about now!
Sleepercar: Alt-country project spearheaded by At the Drive In alumnus Jim Ward. I never got into the the Old 97's -- they should have been a band I liked, but they just never clicked with me. So by and large, the faster, punked-up Old 97's-influenced material on Sleepercar's West Texas doesn't do much for me. But when they slow it down, keep it mellow, and pull out the pedal steel, they give me that warm and fuzzy feeling I get from really good alt country. Add them to the growing list of bands giving Texas a good name.
Of the five new reviews I will link and share below, I'd like to draw attention to one in particular:
I wrote Fallen from Grace: Music of Real Life Pop Criminals for Bullz Eye's "Mix Disc Monday" series, in which fifteen songs are tied together in a different theme every two weeks. It appears that a 25 year old "writer and pop culture junkie" from Brooklyn liked it enough to submit it to Digg, where, as of now, it has collected 92 "diggs" and seven comments. It is also, as of now, the Bullz Eye story with the fourth most diggs. If anything, I'd say this says a lot about the kinds of things people find fascinating. Bad behavior is always hot, I guess.
I hadn’t been to the Greek Theatre in Berkeley until this summer, even though I’ve lived in the Bay area four years now. Steely Dan’s set last Saturday was the third show at the Greek I’ve attended this summer, after Robert Plant & Alison Krauss and R.E.M. last month. This was also the third time I’ve seen Steely Dan – saw them also in 2003 and in 1994. They say three is a perfect number…
Anyway, what do you get at a Steely Dan show other than perfection? Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are renowned for creating perfect sounding records, and their concerts are no different. I suppose it can sound boring if you see them too many times, but going nine years or five years between shows keeps it fresh. In this instance, besides pristine sound, playing, arrangements, etc., we got a fun opener in the Joey DeFrancesco trio. He plays the Hammond B3 like nobody’s business, and since Jimmy Smith is gone, Joey’s the modern day torch bearer for the B3’s place in jazz. The set length was just right, the two keyboards and drums trio setting worked surprisingly well (the second keyboardist, Pat Bianchi, kept his volume just a bit lower than Joey’s and complemented him tastefully), and Joey’s tongue-in-cheek reworking of “Got My Mojo Workin’” left us in an upbeat mood, and ready for Becker and Fagen to go all crabby on us.
Actually, Becker himself proved to be a funny guy as well later in the evening.
Here’s how it went down:
The band, sans Becker and Fagen and the backup singers, started the set with a two-song, unedited instrumental medley, so we could have sung along if we liked, but I think I was the only one who attempted that. First up was Everyone’s Gone to the Movies, in a funky arrangement with the melody played on muted trumpet, and a sweet baritone sax solo. This led straight into The Fez, with a cool horn arrangement overtaking the song’s signature keyboard part, and some guitar and alto sax solos. A short drum solo bridged it over to The Royal Scam and a stately opening trumpet solo. It was at this point that out come Becker, Fagen, and two female singers with huge afros. They sounded awesome, and when they were introduced later in the evening, it became very clear why that was so.
Fagen looks like a balding old man who kind of enjoys being old, smirking his way through the years because he can still sing most of his songs in the same key that was comfortable for him when he was younger. Yay to that. Another drum solo fades the song down (are we sensing a pattern here?) and another segue into…
I Got The News. They were digging deep into their catalog early on, and they just kept on digging! Another drum segue and then…
Showbiz Kids, in a completely different arrangement, much improved over the studio version. A new theme was played to a lightweight James Brown beat, an extra chord was played for the ‘Show business kids makin’ movies of themselves’ line, and then another new chord was added for Becker’s guitar solo. The studio version of “Showbiz Kids” is one of the most boring and disappointing songs in the Steely Dan catalog (musically anyway; lyrics are another story); live, it’s totally redeemed. And after the song’s closing theme, the segue-fest finally ends so Fagen can speak to us. He cheekily proclaimed that “the Think Fast Steely Dan orchestra” would be “playing songs from various stages of our magnificent career,” and he actually wasn’t kidding on that count – every Steely Dan studio album was represented by at least one song (the first three albums and their two recent reunion albums) and as many as five (that honor went to Aja, not surprisingly).
When they played Everything You Did (in a reggae version for a new twist), the line in this jealous lover song that goes “I’m gonna a get a gun / shoot the mother down” reminded me of a story that my guitar teacher told me of a run-in with Becker in a parking lot in New York that sounded awfully similar to the story told in this song. Could it be…?
Two Against Nature was next, and it really breathed with real drums instead of whatever was done with the beat on the studio version. This is another song that I never really cared for in its studio version, but live, Fagen was in the groove, Becker’s solo swung too – it was yet another improvement, with an awesome ‘solo’ spot from the backup singers.
Hey Nineteen was the first hit that we heard in the set. Having seen Steely Dan in the Boston metro area the last two times, it was weird not hearing a huge applause for the “sweet things from Boston” lyric. But hearing Becker riffing on that bit about taking your beloved home and getting her drunk before the ‘Cuervo Gold’ bit was even funnier than when I heard it before. Maybe that’s because Fagen did it last time. Fagen is the voice of Steely Dan when he sings, but Becker just seems more like a naturally engaging storyteller when he speaks.
Godwhacker was the representation for 2003’s Everything Must Go. The breakdown each time on the ‘be very very quiet’ part was a clever touch, and the blues-derived changes set up the bari, tenor, trumpet trombone solos really well.
Fagen then pulled out the disco-fied The New Frontier from his first solo album, which was a good lead-in to the equally faux-funky Glamour Profession. Then came Gaucho in a different key, which seemed strange at first until Becker started singing it instead of Fagen.
At this point, the drum solo bookend pattern that was present at the beginning of the show gave way to a new one. Fagen played a dreamy electric piano solo that led into Home at Last. Then he laid back and let the backup singers take the lead on Parker’s Band. Charlie Parker was pictured on the screen behind the band, but incredibly, there was no sax solo at the end! How can you play a tribute to Charlie Parker and not have your band’s sax player blow a little solo on the alto? Small complaint overall, but still!
When Black Friday started, with its exaggerated shuffle beat, we knew the end was getting near. Fagen returned to his electric piano for another brief solo before the next song, Josie, which sounded like it might have been brought down a half step. Aja, however, was definitely in its original key, and was a high point of the evening.
“It sounds like the ‘60s!” said Becker, as that familiar Motown beat started up and the backup singers teased with a bit of the Supremes’ Love is Like an Itching in my Heart before Becker introduced the band over the band’s vamp. Why were those singers so good? Their names told me everything I needed to know: Cynthia Mizell and Tawatha Agee!! Cynthia sang alongside Lisa Fischer with the Rolling Stones during their Steel Wheels/Urban Jungle tour of 1989-90. And Tawatha was the lead singer in Mtume from ’77 till ’86. I always loved her singing on those Mtume records, especially the very first one from ’77, Kiss This World Goodbye, with “Love Lock” and “The Closer I Get To You” (which James Mtume co-wrote with Reggie Lucas for Roberta Flack). But most folks probably recognize her as the lead voice on Mtume's biggest hit, "Juicy Fruit." Here's the video, but alas, no afro (it was the '80s, boo):
Peg and Kid Charlamagne closed the main set… and when they came back for the encore, it was a somber Third World Man that preceded Fagen’s last electric piano mini-solo of the evening. They took us out with Do It Again, and Becker and Fagen walked out to an instrumental as the band kept playing; strangely, the audience started walking out too, before the band even finished! Weirdness.
That’s right, no “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number,” no “Reeling in the Years,” no “Deacon Blues,” no “Bodhisattva.” It was a fan’s set, for sure, and a thoroughly satisfying one.
Stevie’s back on the road, and I was there last Saturday, at the Shoreline, this time with four others. As he did last year, he’s billing these shows as “A Wonder Summer’s Night” and he’s playing straight through the evening with no opening act. Huge band, lots of percussion, and this time he even brought his 6 year old son Kailand to play a little bit of drums towards the end of the evening. The kid was probably the only person in the entire venue who didn’t have a huge grin on his face. Did he not want to be there? Does he take drumming that seriously? Does he not like Stevie’s music? Was he mad at his dad? Who knows… the rest of us were very happy to be there.
Casually strolling out in the early evening light with daughter and backing vocalist Asiha Morris guiding him to his perch, Stevie opened the show with some positive remarks about Barack Obama and, when he got the band started, four songs in a row off Hotter Than July. Talk about digging deep! “As If You Read My Mind” and “Did I Hear You Say You Love Me?” were two of the songs I least expected to hear, and like most of the night’s performances, they were note perfect. Even with this four pack, Innervisions was still the best represented album of the night, with five songs (“Visions,” “Living For the City,” “Golden Lady,” “Higher Ground” and “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout a Thing”).
The talk box came out again, as it did last year, after some fun call and response with the audience. This time he only used it for one fun cover tune – the Stylistics’ “People Make the World Go Round,” and it was a pretty complete version too.
Biggest surprise of the evening: a full performance, with band member solo spots, of Chick Corea’s “Spain” (as heard on the second Return to Forever album, Light as a Feather). [Though Lee Hildebrand's piece for the San Francisco Chronicle identified this tune as Joaquin Rodrigo's "Concierto de Aranjuez," in reality, Hildebrand only identified the intro to "Spain," which Corea lifted from Rodrigo's piece. The rest of the tune is Corea's].
Songs missed: would have been nice to hear something off A Time 2 Love. He actually announced “So What the Fuss” at the end of the night, but played “Superstition” instead and called it an evening. Not a bad trade-off, but still.
Most polite audience moment: the crowd actually hushed to listen to Aisha sing a jazzy rendition of “I’m Gonna Laugh You Out of My Life,” and good thing – she wasn’t always easy to hear. Good singing voice, definitely has her dad’s genes.
Most welcome diversion from the hits: we were treated to a new song called “Keep Fooling Yourself Baby Girl,” from the forthcoming album Through the Eyes of Wonder. There’s nothing like hearing a legend who refuses to rest on his laurels. Even though it wasn’t the most memorable tune (can’t remember the melody for the life of me), it certainly sounded catchy at the time and was modeled in classic Stevie fashion. Can’t wait to hear the rest of the album!
Most annoying abbreviation of a song: Stevie performed acceptably abbreviated versions of “Isn’t She Lovely” (I wonder if Aisha ever gets sick of hearing this song?) and “I Just Called to Say I Love You” (1 verse and two choruses do just fine), but when he stopped the band after his harmonica solo during “For Once in My Life” and declared “that’s enough of that,” man, that was nothing short of mean!
Bottom line: the man is still 100% dynamite, a national treasure. Go see him! If everybody could experience Stevie Wonder live, the makers of Prozac would surely go out of business.
Set list:
As If You Read My Mind Master Blaster (Jammin’) Did I Hear You Say You Love Me? All I Do Knocks Me Off My Feet Audience jam/People Make The World Go Round Higher Ground Spain Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing Visions Living For The City Golden Lady Creepin’ Keep Fooling Yourself Baby Girl I’m Gonna Laugh You Out Of My Life (Aisha Morris) Isn’t She Lovely (2 verses) Ribbon In The Sky Overjoyed My Cherie Amour Signed, Sealed, Delivered, I’m Yours Sir Duke I Wish Do I Do I Just Called To Say I Love You (1 verse, two choruses) For Once In My Life (stopped after harmonica solo) Uptight (Everything’s Alright) Superstition
More of what keeps me busy outside of the day job:
In the June edition of West Coast Performer, I have a review of the debut EP by Hot Challenge. The band plays the Rickshaw Stop in San Francisco next Wednesday.
A 'Quick Take' on Moreland & Arbuckle's 1861 (fine, tough, no-nonsense blues rock with the sound and purist attitude of the best practitioners from the late '60s and early '70s).
...and a full review of Radiohead's The Best Of. This album bears the lowest rating yet I've attached to a Bullz Eye review.
Also on June 20, Popdose's weekly Friday feature, a fun little game called Name That Tune, featured my input in the form of creating the answer key and acrostic puzzle for the purpose of giving away two copies of Dennis Wilson's just-reissued Pacific Ocean Blue as prizes to the first person to guess the puzzle song, as well as the person who guessed the last remaining song. This is one of my favorite Popdose features, so I was more than happy to contribute. Check it out every Friday. You might be surprised at how many songs you can actually guess from the one-second snippets (or how impossible it is some weeks).
...and finally, a review of the double disc 'Legacy Edition' of Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue ran on June 27. Run out and grab this one while you can, before it goes out of print for another decade and a half! Amoeba Records sold out the week of the release...
I almost didn't go to see Plant and Krauss. I had a late afternoon party to attend, for which I was a key component in both the planning and entertainment, so I couldn't exactly predict if I'd even be able to make it to Berkeley in time for the show. Plus it was sold out. But as luck would have it, I was able to not only get to the Greek just in time, I also scored what appeared to be the lone single ticket sold outside the venue by an unassuming old dude with white hair who parted with it at face value.
I had the welcoming screams of the Greek crowd and Plant & Krauss' opening number, "Rich Woman," as the soundtrack to my entrance and journey to my viewing location. Once I was settled, I saw on the stage a simple set-up with a total of seven musicians: Jay Bellerose on drums, Dennis Crouch on bass, Buddy Miller on guitar, multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan (fiddle, mandolin, ukulele, guitar), bandleader/guitarist/vocalist T Bone Burnett, and of course, the show's two stars.
Thanks to Jon Cummings' Popdose Review of the Plant & Krauss show earlier in the week at L.A.'s Greek Theatre, I was kicking myself for not having followed my impulsive idea to fly down south for the show. Fortunately, my last-minute attendance at Berkeley was not among the kind of non-plussed crowd that Cummings experienced. They were pretty chill, but the group of three whose prime viewing space I crashed really seemed to be enjoying the mostly country-bluegrass-Americana set with tinges of gospel. The dudes behind me were really digging Krauss' good looks (as was I), though really, her stunning, pitch perfect vocals would have been enough to satisfy me. And when I say stunning, I mean I really felt paralyzed by the beauty of Krauss' voice on "Trampled Rose." I mean, WOW. And down below my perch, hippie girls were gingerly dancing to the more upbeat numbers in the set. I wasn't hearing any grumbling about the lack of Zep tunes or rock n' roll in general. This crowd seemed to know exactly what they were in for, and loved it.
Plant's presence at the show was maybe a bit less than I expected. I knew that Krauss had some solo space, which was great, but when T Bone sang a couple of songs without Plant or Krauss, that's when the extraneous conversation around me was at its peak. If anything, I attribute this portion of the show to Plant & Krauss' appreciation for the fact that T Bone himself is a modern day master of his craft, and if it weren't for his masterminding of the whole project, we wouldn't even been seeing this show. Or listening to the brilliant Raising Sand album, one of last year's best album releases overall in my humble opinion. Shame that the Zep reunion at the Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert overshadowed it completely in the press.
But back to the show... I haven't checked back against the record, but most if not all of Raising Sand was performed, along with some other covers and a few old nuggets from Plant's distant past that elicited the greatest response of the evening: a bluegrass rendition of "Black Dog," straight readings of "Black Country Woman" and "The Battle of Evermore" (with accompaniment from Krauss that, for my money, bettered Sandy Denny's performance on the original Zeppelin recording), and an awesome rustic recast of Plant's solo hit "In The Mood" done as a medley with the old English folk ballad "Matty Groves."
Even though Plant is clearly immersing himself in the music and going with the flow, he couldn't help but have the strongest stage presence due to his old rock god moves. He was shaking and dancing throughout the evening, having a ball and inspiring others who weren't planted in seats to do the same. He only occasionally let out some rockin' wails that recalled his past, notably on "Nothin'", which earned him some applause that was almost as loud as what the Zep tunes garnered.
I walked away having heard all my favorites from Raising Sand -- "Gone, Gone, Gone," "Killing the Blues," "Please Read the Letter," and "Your Long Journey" -- and feeling only mild disappointment. Why? Well, the show was so good, and I was so transfixed the entire evening, that I failed to engage the hot blond next to me. She was afraid to hop the fence at the edge of the lawn seating area to join her friends, and only joined them after I encouraged her to follow my lead. Man, if only the show sucked as much as some of the observations in Cummings' Popdose Review and comments on Shay Quillan's San Jose Mercury News blog suggest, I might have gotten my head together to ask for her number. Damn you Robert Plant! Damn you Alison Krauss! Come back soon, and try to suck just a little bit more next time.
Hot Challenge EP -- this young electro-rock band from San Francisco could pick up some serious momentum if they keep their fingers on the pulse, so to speak.
Priscilla Ahn A Good Day -- you know times are strange when a major coffee shop chain can and does regularly define an entire subgenre of pop music. You know where I'm going with this one...
Cherry Poppin' Daddies Susquehanna -- remember these guys? You know, the "Zoot Suit Riot" band? Forget about the '90s swing revival before you look into this one (just like you had to put all thoughts of trip hop out of your mind when digging into the new Portishead)...
Joan as Police Woman To Survive -- a new set of baroque pop tunes by the former violinist from the Dambuilders. Now she sings, now she sobs... wait, that's a Chick Corea record. This one goes well with equal doses of Antony and the Johnsons and Rufus Wainwright.
- - -
What else awaits us the rest of the month? We shall see, in due time. Or hear, rather. Two from the vaults to pick up, regardless, on Tuesday: the double disc Legacy Edition of the late Beach Boy Dennis Wilson's Pacific Ocean Blue, and Chicago's lost album Stone of Sisyphus. The latter has unfortunately suffered from an ill-advised historical revision by omission by excluding one of the original album's heavy rock tunes, and a reject from one of their worst albums was appended as a bonus track, but at least there are 11 solid tunes on the disc worth hearing...
A couple weekends ago, I had the pleasure of seeing R.E.M. for the first time at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. Missed the two openers (Modest Mouse and the National), but wasn't peeved. After all, I had seen Modest Mouse play a short set once before and didn't feel like being teased again. Next time I see them, it will be in a headlining slot, playing a full set.
Anyway, I noted that R.E.M.'s audience seemed oddly detached and sedate throughout most of the set, and not just during the 7 or 8 new songs from this year's Accelerate (which is excellent, by the way -- it rocks, but modestly, unlike '94's overrated Monster). Nobody really made much in the way of noise till they pulled out the big guns: "Losing My Religion," "Man On the Moon," "Orange Crush," etc. No "It's the End of the World as We Know It," fortunately. I never really got into that one. "Ignoreland" was a pleasant surprise, and one of my favorites of the evening, along with "Man Sized Wreath." Better still, I walked away having been introduced to one excellent song I hadn't heard before that I particularly enjoyed ("I've Been High," from 2001's Reveal).
For a band that is kind of "legendary" at this stage of their career, they are doing an excellent job of maintaining their signature sound, and still emanating a bit of freshness and youthful vigor. Stipe is still in fine voice and modestly charming as a front man, Buck and Mills still play as if they're enjoying themselves, and only one other guy (Scott McCaughey) augments the core quartet (with touring drummer Bill Rieflin). They're lean, not very showy, very solid, well worth seeing.
A superior, more detailed overview of the evening can be found at The Concert Blog.
Last month I had the pleasure of interviewing Portland-based singer/songwriter/pianist Rachel Taylor Brown for Bullz Eye. Not only does she make truly unique, though-provoking music, she's a genuinely nice person on top of it all. The only problem? She needs to get some more live shows booked!
Here's an excerpt from the interview, where she talks about the genesis of her toy piano fetish:
[Producer] Jeff [Stuart Saltzman] has all these interesting instruments lying around in his house, which is a studio, and when he’s working on something, I’d start playing around on different instruments. Like the VSF 30, that’s where I first saw the Yamaha VSF 30 and I had to have one. And it’s kind of the same thing with the piano. A lot of what I have, I’m just copying Jeff Stuart Saltzman (laughs) because he has so much interesting stuff around his house. So that one song on Ormolu, there’s this kind of like experimental tune similar to “Hemocult” on Creatures where it’s toy pianos and Mellotron and things like that. And that was one of the times where I was messing around on the toy piano, and then Jeff is just really good at just silently setting up microphones around me when I’m involved in doing something like that, and that whole tune just ended up being improvised on toy piano and all the other stuff, kind of like “Hemocult” was. And so, yeah, once I played Jeff’s toy piano, I wanted my own toy piano, and I wound up with three or four, ‘cause I’m greedy.
Head over to Popdose and check out my latest contribution there: an overview of the recorded output of Badfinger. They wrote some amazing songs, had a few hits with them, and met with a lot of tragedy in the end despite being the most successful artists the Beatles signed to their Apple label. Lots of archival video footage linked from YouTube to sift through... Enjoy!
And speaking of Chris Robley, he will be appearing at Cafe du Nord next Sunday, April 20, with fellow Portland-ites Norfolk & Western, along with openers Weinland. If you haven't seen him yet, this will be a nice, intimate intro.
And in the spirit of shedding light on the absurd, since all but one of the artist links above are Myspace links, I'd like to point you in the direction of Lila Nelson's side-splitting song about Myspace, called "I Accept Everybody," which you can hear... on her Myspace page, of course. Lila is from Aracta, and I heard her perform this song at her early set at Portland's Mississippi Studios back in February, prior to Rachel Taylor Brown's headlining trio set that evening...
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Finally got my hands on a copy of The Last Waltz on DVD. After hearing one of my coworkers talk it up fairly consistently since I've known him, and then recently finding out that he was actually at the '76 concert in question, I had to check it out. Plus I had seen Scorsese's other big concert film, Shine A Light, last week, so it was due to happen. My appreciation for The Band has been upped since watching it. It's very easy to forget, without actually seeing them, that they were all pretty much multi-instrumentalists and singers. I found myself wishing that they were the full-time backing band for all of the artists who appeared at the show. Of course they did their time with Dylan, but would that they had longer associations with Van Morrison, Neil Young and Emmylou Harris. Neil Diamond, eh, he could have toned himself down a bit. I like him much better now as an old vet working with Rick Rubin and the Heartbreakers. But if The Band were all alive and active today, they would have been the ideal choice for Diamond's comeback records.
Now at some point I need to finish watching Alejandro Jodorowsky's Fando & Lis. WOW. I don't know how I'm going to distill that one into a short synopsis, but I will try once I've absorbed it all...
In the crazy hustle bustle hamster wheel that is 2008 Q1, some reviews have nearly slipped off the radar of this little web cubby. Rescued from the very recent past, here they are:
You read about them here, now read about them at Bullz-Eye and anywhere else that gives these guys some ink. Dulli and Lanegan have created a masterpiece. Lovers of darkly spiritual alt-rock, beware!
Another one for Bullz-Eye. Maybe you remember these guys from 10 or so years ago, back when Brit-pop records were actually moving off shelves in the U.S. They're back, finally, with their third album, and not much has changed - the Eastern hippy-drippy psychedelia is still there, they still rock, and they still make uneven albums. But a good amount of the tunes are worth ripping and keeping.
More to come in the not too distant future...
P.S. - R.I.P. Teo Macero. You made Miles' records the events that they are!
L-R: Greg Dulli, Mark Lanegan;Photo by Julie Bernstein
It becomes increasingly difficult to get large groups together to go out and enjoy a concert, as many of the big names for which our friends share a common love have been pricing us out of the market. I don’t recall a time since perhaps back in college when I was part of a group as large as seven to attend a concert together (and I think the group might have actually been five or six). It might have been a Neil Young show. That’s the one I remember most clearly, and in fact, the Afghan Whigs were set to play first, followed by Jewel. I was a little miffed that we couldn’t get it together to arrive on time for the Whigs, and we missed their set. Fortunately I’d be able to make up for it next time they came to town, and nearly every time Greg Dulli has played within driving distance.
Which brings me to this past Saturday night. A group of seven! I’m still pretty high about it. It was myself, my friend, co-worker and band-mate Julie (taking photos that evening), my ex-girlfriend (but a friend first and always) Jennifer and her friend Alex, my co-worker Derek and his brother, and my friend and band-mate Mike. All of us shared either a curiosity or strong devotion to Greg Dulli and/or Mark Lanegan, who kicked off their first tour as the Gutter Twins here in San Francisco on Saturday night as part of the annual Noise Pop festival.
I’ve had my review copy of Saturnalia playing constantly since receiving it in the mail, and I’m already feeling that it will probably end up as my pick for album of the year. It’ll be a tough one for anyone to top.
Lanegan had been a part of previous tours with Dulli’s Twilight Singers band, but he would only appear on stage occasionally. It was one of those occasions during the last Twilight Singers gig in San Francisco, back in ’06, when the music was elevated to a status one could call ‘magical’ or ‘transcendent’ or whatever your preferred term. Lanegan took his place at the microphone and sang an obscure Massive Attack song called “Live With Me” that only those who picked up the Collected best-of that summer would have known. Fortunately, the Lanegan-sung version was recorded for posterity in the studio and appeared on the Twilight Singers A Stitch in Time EP last year. It was effectively a preview of things to come, and it is now a part of the Gutter Twins’ live set.
Besides Lanegan on vocals and Dulli on vocals, guitar and keys, the band consisted of: Dave Rosser, guitar and vocals; Scott Ford, bass and vocals; Jeff Klein, guitar, keys and vocals, and Cully Symington, drums.
Lanegan and Dulli both remained on stage the entire time, and there wasn’t a single song where either one was silent vocally. When Lanegan was singing lead on a song, Dulli would have some background parts to sing, and vice versa. And on occasion they would trade leads, as on “I Was in Love with You.” This is the one song on Saturnalia where Lanegan is not present, but on stage, he sings most of the leads and Dulli takes some of it later. The best shared leads were saved for the encore, however – the old Twilight Singers tune “Papillon” found Dulli inserting a line from Steve Miller’s “The Joker” (in an apparent acknowledgement of his smoking on stage in a city where smoking indoors in public places is illegal), followed by Lanegan inserting a line from the even older Screaming Trees chestnut “Shadow of the Season.”
Uniquely interpreted covers are always a part of any show Dulli plays, so we got the aforementioned “Live With Me” along with a Lanegan-sung cover of Jose Gonzalez’ “Down the Line,” with Lanegan extracting all the blues out of the song that his gravelly voice can muster.
The entirety of Saturnalia was performed, with few words spoken between songs. Lanegan is typically silent between songs on stage, or as Mike put it, he’s “all business.” Some of this vibe has rubbed off on Dulli, who used to be far more talkative with the audience. But all that means is more music. And given the shorter set times with a total of four bands performing that night, the twenty-song set split between new songs, solo Lanegan tunes and Twilight Singers material was quite generous. And satisfying.
Set List:
The Stations God’s Children The Body Live With Me Seven Stories Underground All Misery / Flowers Idle Hands Circle the Fringes Bete Noire I Was in Love with You Down the Line Who Will Lead Us Each to Each Front Street
Encore: The River Rise Papillon/The Joker/Shadow of the Season No Easy Action King Only Methamphetamine Blues Number Nine
Saturnalia is out today on Sub Pop, as a CD, mp3 download and double 180-gram vinyl LP (which itself includes a coupon for a free mp3 download of the whole album).
Bullz-Eye just posted a cool new feature today called "Rock of Pages: 45 Books for the Literate Music Fan." It's exactly what the title implies: a list of rock books with short reviews on each. All the entries were chosen by the staff writers, and I have three entries in the bunch (on "Songbook" by Nick Hornby, "Chronicles, Vol. 1" by Bob Dylan and "Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung" by Lester Bangs). There's also a "celebrity edition." Edie Brickell's entry is particularly amusing. Check it out and enjoy!
I literally hear the clock tick every day now. The old blue alarm clock that my grandmother gave to me almost 20 years ago finally bit the dust. Much as I would love for time to reset itself to midnight at any given moment, the rest of the world isn't having any of it. I was tempted to pick up one of those CD player clocks, or one of those units that plays music from a portable mp3 player. But I already have enough music playing devices. All I wanted was a time-keeping device and alarm, and I found what I was looking for in one of those wind-up clocks with a real bell alarm. Yes, they are still being made! And if it weren't for the glow-in-the-dark numerals on the clock's face, it could be mistaken for a much older device. The bell alarm is jarring, and since it's wind-up powered, I won't have to worry about waking up late if the power goes out at night (or changing batteries for back-up). Simple solution, quickly implemented.
Band workshop is nearing the halfway point. We have now rehearsed half of the songs we've decided on playing, and we're sounding better every time. I had my first shot at singing and playing bass at the same time (on a Dylan tune) in yesterday's rehearsal, which went much better than I thought it would. The instructor encouraged me to immitate some of Dylan's phrasing, and everyone seemed really happy with the results. Our keyboard player, Ziggy, was struggling with the changes, but I'm pretty confident that he'll be comfortably acing 'em in no time. The form of the tune is outside of what he usually plays, and is ironically much simpler than what he generally excells at (progressive, new age-type material). Maybe it's like trying to make Philip Glass play the blues, but fortunately rock n' roll was made for this kind of mixing of musical backgrounds. It's the great bastard genre, and we're finding a way to make it work for us. Being that we all like each other personally, I know it's going to sound great in the end.
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Birthday is coming up (that ticking clock won't let me forget!)... but I have no big celebration planned this time. Nope, just a trip up to Portland next weekend to visit Chris and check out a Saturday night performance by Rachel Taylor Brown (whose new album is excellent, by the way -- look for a Bullz Eye review on that one in the not too distant future). The Portland scene has held my interest since reconnecting with Chris last Fall, so I'm particularly looking forward to visiting the city for the first time and hearing some of the music live, in its natural environment, not to mention hangin' again with an old friend...
Head over to popdose.com and check out the Popdose Guide to Ornette Coleman. Fifty years and nearly 40 albums covered... with about as many recordings to hear. It's the first guide I've written for the newly minted Popdose, with more to come. Enjoy!
By day, I look after the publicity office for a major university. After-hours, I indulge in my passions: playing guitar, writing about music for blogs and print publications, eating, and singing at the local karaoke bar, among other things. I am also continuing to learn more about the web as I look to the future, where I eventually see my love of music, writing and the web combining into some sort of sustainable, harmonious union.
Saw Bob Dylan last night night in Berkeley. Quick and to the point: best Dylan show of the five I've seen to date (previous shows I've seen were summer of '97 at Great Woods in Mansfield, Mass. with Ani DiFranco; spring of 2005 at the Paramount Theater in Oakland with Merle Haggard; fall of 2007 at the Ryan Center in Kingston, RI with Elvis Costello; and this summer at Banner Island Ballpark in Stockton, CA with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp).
