After the surprise Kool and the Gang show from the previous week, it was time for the first planned show of 2012. An encore shot at hearing the Rock Candy Funk Party with Joe Bonamassa at the tiny Baked Potato for a second time. (The first was back in August of last year and one of my top shows of 2011.)
This time my friend Dave was able to join me and to was a terrific time to catch up and share someone that I thought he’d really enjoy…and Joe did not disappoint me (or Dave) at all.
We grabbed maybe the best seats I’ll ever have at any show. We were seated directly beside Arlen the keyboard player next to his B-3 and Mini-Moog. It was pretty much like being on stage with the band. Seated beside us was the guitarist from the Helecasters, and just down and across was Steve Perry (of Journey). So, obviously the word had gotten out about seeing this band in such a small and casual setting.
Opening with “Root Down” the funky Jimmy Smith tune from the early 70′s (One which they’d played back in August) things kicked right into gear. It seems like these guys are so talented that they could literally walk in cold to room and light it on fire within a couple of minutes (as you can see in this clip)
Next up was the Miles Davis track “Jean Pierre”. And because there are so many nice recordings of this show on You Tube, I’ll just go ahead and post them cut by cut so you can judge for yourself the quality of this amazing show.
Next up was a great take on a blues staple, “Crossroads” (Although the vocals aren’t well mixed on any version I could find.)
At this point they brought up a guest vocalist, Beth Hart who released an album with Joe late last year. She did two songs with the band, the first “For My Friends” was smoking and the second was a last minute choice of “I’d Rather Go Blind” the classic Etta James song which was still fresh in my ears when I heard the news a couple days later about Etta James passing. Beth Hart totally nailed the song and as with the Jimmy Smith and Miles Davis tracks performed earlier gave me a nice sense that guys like Joe can pick up the mantle from some of the greats who have passed and carry on doing justice to the great music of an earlier generation.
I wasn’t really sure where the band could go after that…but, they totally amazed me with an extended version of “Respect” that morphed into a wild jam on the classic Spencer Davis/Chicago version of “I’m a Man”. (Here is in it’s nearly 18 minutes of flat out rocking glory.)
So, as Dave said on the way home….”I just need to process what I just saw…”
And for me, except for Jeff Beck last year, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone play guitar that well in quite a while…maybe Derek Trucks or Robert Randolph, but they are both different types of players (Slide & Petal Steel), so it’s not a fair comparison to either side.
So, to wrap up, I could pull out the thesaurus and try to find a whole bunch of new cool words to try and describe the experience of seeing a group like that from literally a couple feet away, but I don’t think I could even then do real justice to the experience. I will say that if you get the chance, go see this guy….in a club, a theatre, an arena….heck, anyplace he plays. I can guarantee, if you like blues, jazz, funk or flat out petal to the metal rock and roll, you won’t be disappointed by Joe Bonamassa.
I was attending a work conference and on the last night they planned a fun street party for us in the GasLamp District of San Diego. When we arrived we learned they had a special guest surprise. A Kool and the Gang concert in the middle of 5th street. Nice!
This won’t be a long review or go into that much detail…because honestly…Kool and the Gang is really the original “Kool” and a sorta new “gang”. But, frankly…it didn’t matter. They are the perfect corporate party band. A huge catalog of songs that people know performed well. They aren’t a band made up of names folks know. So, if the lead singer is 20 years younger than the bass player (Kool)…who cares?
I’d worked with them a couple times a decade ago in support a couple corporate gigs. Many of the faces had changed since then, but a couple were the same. so, there is some history still up there. It’ll be interesting to see how they go over as an opener on the upcoming Van Halen tour (yes, they are opening for Van Halen?…weird, but it might just work…)
They had a lot more time as a headliner, 90 minutes that they filled with the hits you expected and a few that you’d say…”Oh yeah, they did do that too…”
“Fresh” kicked things off and was soon followed by a solid progression of “Emergency” into “JoAnna” followed by “Too Hot” and then a spot on take of Michael Jackson’s “Shake your Body”. The lead singer even tossed in a couple MJ spins and moves. Back deep in the catalog brought out the early hits “Hollywood Swinging” and “Jungle Boogie” with a nice James Brown medley next.
I was moving around the party at this point and missed a few of the song titles, but they finished with a one two punch of “Get Down on It” and the obligatory “Celebrate”. All ages were dancing at that point. Which is the exact point of a well chosen corporate band for a gig. Get the crowd moving, make sure they have some fun and send them home smiling. Kool and the Gang exactly filled that bill and did a near perfect job of it.
Here’s a clip from the 2011 Glastonbury where they headlined West Holts.
Here’s my 2011 list of concerts. A little shorter than some years, but I had a lot of work distractions in the past year, so it’s actually a pretty good tally all things considered. There’s a lot of quality there and a few once in lifetime shows. I’ll make a few individual notes where appropriate (But, of course there’s a review of each if you’re so inclined to read more.
Phil Vassar – A nice little private show at the PCMA conference for people with a CMP designation. Fun and loose show.
Robert Randolph & the Family Band
Chromeo – A bit of a letdown, but I’m still hoping to see them again and see how they evolve.
Richard Cheese & Lounge Against the Machine
Delgado Brothers
Jeff Beck & Imelda May – Once in a lifetime and one of the best shows I saw all year.
Prince - Another show that for all the hype was a bit of letdown.
Doheny Blues Fest – Tedeschi/Trucks, John Fogerty, Experience Hendrix, Mavis Staples, The Blasters, Funky Meters, Big Head Blues Club, (Plus others) - Two great days on the beach. A couple misses, but mostly hits. Tedeschi/Trucks being the very best of day 1 and the Blasters the best of Day 2
KSBR Birthday Bash – Brenda Russell, Kieko Matsui, Brian Bromberg, Dan Siegel, (Plus others) - A really cool gift from my friend Eliott.
Eels - Confounding and complex. It was great in some very unexplainable ways.
U2 & Lenny Kravitz (2x) - Night 2 was the better of the two nights, both were strong but night 2 has the edge (pun intended).
Weird Al
Kansas & Blue Oyster Cult - Not very good, one of the most disappointing shows of the year for me.
Rock Candy Funk Party - Going back in January, a top five evening and surprisingly it’s not once in a lifetime, looking forward to it very much.
Barenaked Ladies - Good, but not great. More and more I miss Stephen Page.
Return to Forever & Zappa Plays Zappa - I’d say that along with Jeff Beck this were the most amazingly talented musicians I saw all year…or in many years.
Frank Turner - My best find of 2011. Seeing him in February once again!
Fountains Of Wayne - I wanted this to be better, bit it wasn’t up to the pervious levels I’d seen them perform at.
Airborne Toxic Event - Another cool find of 2011 and this was the Filmore show in SF that was really cool.
Big Head Todd w/Ruthie Foster and Charlie Musselwhite - Again, a sort of letdown show and slightly disappointing overall.
Airborne Toxic Event, Tokyo Police Club, Built to Spill - Good headliner, the rest of the bill was hit and miss.
Bob Segar - Just reviewed, the man still has it! Great show.
So there you have it. My 2011 in a nutshell.
Looking ahead to 2011 I already have four shows slated. Joe Bonamassa, Frank Turner, Social Distortion and Roger Waters. Plus, I know Springsteen is touring. So, lots to be excited about in the coming year. Thanks as always for reading! Happy New Year!
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 2,600 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 43 trips to carry that many people.
I had another interesting story (well, to me anyway…) connected to seeing Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band. I thought it was 1982, but after an internet search I suspect it was April of 1983 when Bob Seger played the Forum in LA. I had tickets, but I also had a job at KEZY radio that required me to be at work at 10pm. I begged and shuffled and was able to coax that I could arrive at 11pm. But, anyone who live around here knows you how long it takes from Inglewood to Anaheim. So, I went to the show…and spent the whole night checking my watch, pushing it to the very last moment and finally leaving about halfway through the show to head to work. ”Oh well I thought….I’ll see him next time he comes through town….”
He didn’t return until 1987 and I missed it. I missed the shows on the tours in the 90′s as well. Then, he pretty much retired from the road. Life moved along…A 2007 tour came up, and I was on the road when the LA show happened….so, I missed it. It seemed as if I’d never actually see a complete Seger concert.
Then, a few months back he scheduled a show at Staples Center for December 28th. I hate Staples Center, it’s not a very good place to see any concert. But, this was finally my chance to see a full show.
Bob and I are both a bit older and an attack of grey hair has done it’s evil work on both of us. But, I figured that I’d close my eyes and as long as the music and the show was good, it didn’t matter that we might both be older, grayer and a little more “filled out”. I bought a nice single seat near the mix console at the rear of the floor and crossed my fingers I’d get a decent show that would live up to my memories of that half show 28 years ago.
First up was an opening act named Frankie Ballard. Seemed like a nice kid….but, why does a kid from Michigan talk like he’s from Alabama? I suspect it’s because he’s being sold as a “country” artist. That new sort of country…the one that’s more pop and has very little in common with someone like George Jones or Waylon Jennings. The kid and his band we competent players in a bar band sort of way. In fact the two best songs of the set were covers….”Pink Houses” and “Fortunate Son”. Mid-set he played his new single “a bunch of girls” and it was basically “Kenny Chesney” lite…(and since Kenny Chesney is basically Jimmy Buffet lite) it was the musical equivalent of of a third generation cassette copy of a song. He fell back on the crutch of mentioning the headliner a couple times (as well as “the troops”) to get a few rousing cheers. Basically, it was brief and not really offensive, but nothing that makes me think he’ll end up more than a footnote in my musical memories. He was however very punctual…on stage at 7:30 and off at 7:59….so, he’s got that going for him I suppose.
Seger hit the stage at 8:30 exactly and tore into “Roll Me Away”…let me just say here…the man rocks f0r someone who has 15+ years on me. He sounded great and no eye closing was required. Yeah, he’s gray…but he looked healthy and really seemed to be using every tool in the toolbox to involve the crowd. From the start this was not a band there for a payday (like say Kiss was the last time I saw them). This was a rock and roll band near equal to might E-Street band.
The anchor at the center was Don Brewer (of Grand Funk Railroad) who is rock solid after all these years and kept the steady pulse that the rest of the players could build on. Those players, (some who have worked with Seger going back to 1969) are uniformly tight and talented…just like the guys on E-Street are. In fact, I was thinking during the show how both Seger and Springsteen built their bands with a standout sax player (in this case Alto Reed, since 1971). Reed provided a number of highlights, with the most memorable being his excellent work on “Turn the Page”.
Bob may have some moments where his voice shows a tad bit of age, but generally it was stronger than guys I’ve heard who were half his age. And 50 years of stagecraft and practice allowed him to cover flawlessly by doing things like having a quick crowd sing along…which the full house was eager to cooperate with, generally at the top of their lungs. It wasn’t a young crowd, but it was one of the more enthusiastic group of over 40′s I’ve seen. Much of the crowd were on their feet dancing and singing for the entire near two hour show.
There were three moments that stand out in my mind which totally made the night for me.
The opening of “Roll Me Away” was so perfect that I nearly shed a tear. So many years of waiting and to be rewarded with such a great sound brought back a whole range of memories and emotions. From those first notes I knew it was going to be a good show.
The segue between Travelin’ Man on into “Beautiful Loser”. To me this is the centerpiece of the “Live Bullet” album, which may be one of the most perfect live albums ever recorded. (That’s not just my opinion, lots of critics rank it as #1 as well). While on occasion some of his lyrics can be a bit cliche’d, “Beautiful Loser” features this:
He wants to dream like a young man With the wisdom of an old man He wants his home and security He wants to live like a sailor at sea
Beautiful loser Where you gonna fall? When you realize You just can’t have it all
The transition between them and a lifetime of listening to those songs flow into each other was something I didn’t think I’d ever hear live. And it was perfect.
The last was the first encore which opened with “Against the Wind”. As I listened to this song, my thoughts turned to my friend Jeff who we lost a few years back. He had Detroit roots and we saw a lot of Detroit based acts together back when we were both “young and strong”. I thought about how much I wish we could have seen this show together, and how much has changed during all those years that have “rolled slowly by”.
It was a fitting song to cap a show that I waited a long time to see.
It really ended up being one of the best shows that I saw in an eventful year of concerts. It was a really nice way to finish the year.
Set List: Roll Me Away/Trying to Live my Life/Fire Down Below/Main Street/Old Time Rock & Roll/Rambling Gambling Man/Going Back to Birmingham/Travelin’ Man/Beautiful Loser/We’ve got Tonight/Nutbush City Limits/Come to Poppa/Her Strut/Real Mean Bottle/Turn a Page/Sunspot Baby/Katmandu Encores: Against the Wind/Hollywood Nights/Night Moves/Rock & Roll Never Forgets
Back in June I saw Eels (not “the Eels”…just Eels)
Eels is basically a guy named Mark Oliver Everett who calls himself E. with a rotating cast of backing musicians. This show was a warm up for a world tour that would take him around the world (literally), the next shows after this were in China and even a stop in Glastonbury.
E. is sort of known for being somewhat of an enigma and at the same time having been very open about his struggles in dealing with the death of his father, his mother to cancer and his sister to suicide. (He did the album “electro-shock blues” in the mid 90′s that addressed the topic). In other words, this is music of depth and can be challenging. He’s done quite a few albums (more than I own) and I wouldn’t say they are casual listening.
So, I went into the show not quite knowing what to expect.
The opening act “The Watson Twins” were fun and well suited. A nice cover of “ain’t no sunshine” highlighted their brief set.
There was an out of kilter feel to the night that was enhanced by the intermission music which included “Sunshine Lollipops” and a german version of “Leader of the Pack”….(I totally love artists who pay attention to the little details like the specifics of what to play before they hit the stage. This was too wonderfully weird to have been an accident.)
But now here’s where I fall down as a reviewer and what vexed me into not writing this up before. I couldn’t tell you the names of half the songs he did, I’m not familiar enough with his material I guess…..I ended up with notes like “driving hellhound beat, with long sustained guitar grind” and “maybe called I’ve got fear? – driving punk beat”. Not exactly useful in the light of day.
It was confounding, challenging and completely brilliant stuff.
A few things I know he did play: “Daddy was a drunk”, “She’s Dynamite”, “This is Where it Gets Good”, “Novocain for the Soul”, “I Like the Way this is Going”….and even a great version of “Hot Fun in the Summertime” (Sly and the Family Stone) that lead into another funk number I didn’t recognize.
There are some free downloads on the website: Go and explore for yourself http://www.eelstheband.com/
Here’s a song he did as part of the second encore, “Fresh Blood”:
Here’s a version of the Sly cover:
Here’s “Novocain for the Soul”
This was just one of those shows that defy’s description. It was one of the top ten shows that I saw all year, but it’s impossible to exactly describe why. I’d just say, if you get a chance to check him out, do so…and park your expectations at the door. You’ll have a good time.
This show was advertised as the Big Head Blues Club. A group I’d seen at the Doheny Blues Fest in May and totally loved. They took a bunch of old Robert Johnson era material and totally rocked it on a warm spring afternoon on the beach. But on a rainy fall evening some of that magic just wasn’t there for me.
We had great seats, just off to the left edge of the stage. It was a terrific view. The music selections were solid and the sound was even good. So why didn’t it click? Well, the promised guests all showed up, but each one only did a few numbers and then left, there was no real jam feeling and frankly it pretty much felt like a what I assume a Big Head Todd and the Monsters show would be with a few guests. It’s a very fine line to try and draw, but there was a difference from the vibe in May.
A guy named Hadden Sayers opened with a competent set of blues. He even brought out Ruthie Foster to do one song with him. (She was a part of the reason we’d decided to see the show.) His stuff was okay, but noting I rushed to the merchandise stand to buy and take home.
Just after 10pm, Todd came out and strummed a solo version of “American the Beautiful” then was joined by Cedric Burnside for “Honeyboy Edwards”. The full band with Charlie Musselwhite did “Come in my kitchen” and “Last Fair Deal”. A version of “Highway 61″ came next, the Charlie rejoined for “Cashbox”. Surprisingly though, once Charlie left he didn’t reappear. I’d expected a bit more interaction (as their show had been in Doheny). This was a series of guests and not really a “blues club” I don’t think.
Todd and the band did “I’ll play the blues for you” and then according to the printed set list swapped out “Hoochie Choochie Man” for a Big Head Todd song (and minor hit) “Please Don’t Tell Her”. Cedric Burnside came back out for two songs (“Groove me’, “Dirty Juice”), then Ruthie Foster for three (It’s Alright”, “Kind Hearted Woman” and “When You Got a Good Friend”) But, sadly that was the last we’d see of Ruthie who seems to play pretty infrequently around So Cal and is a favorite of Julie’s (We saw her a Doheny a few years ago and this was only the second time I’d seen her playing back this way.)
Cedric Burnside came back out for “Traveling Riverside Blues” and then the band ran through a few more songs ending with John Lee Hookers “Boom Boom”. I expected a bit more from the encores, “Rock Steady” and “Black Betty”, mainly some of the other folks coming back out (not to harp on that or anything….)
The show wrapped at midnight exactly, which may have been a curfew that inhibited things a bit? (Not really sure.)
In retrospect…I’m sort of mixed on the whole show. It wasn’t a bad show…it just wasn’t exactly the show I’d hoped for and in the flurry of work that was going on I just never got back to sit down and document it. They were great at Doheny, but I doubt that I’d go back and see another club date of the “Big Head Blues Club”. What was magic in the sun, sort of wilted in the dark a bit. (But, you sure couldn’t tell that they aren’t great from the You Tube clips I went back and watched while writing this….so, what do I know anyway?)
Tomorrow night will be my last show of 2011 and I realize that there were three shows I didn’t review as promised.
It’s a funny, I started each one of these and for various reasons I never actually got back to deal with them. Most of those reasons of course were work (and work travel) related. I logged a decent amount of road miles this year, and next year is looking just as strong or stronger. It’s good and bad I suppose, but I like to travel and I like my job, so it’s not really something to complain about much. I also have been spending a lot of time on a second company we are starting up (www.avforplanners.com) and even working on our podcast (www.meetingspodcast.com). So, plenty of reaasons not to write reviews.
But, the biggest were that each of the three un-reviewed shows had some missing element that I wasn’t able to write around or even really know what it was. So, I suppose you could say that two of these are my biggest disappointments of 2011, the third…well, you’ll just have to keep reading, won’t you?
The October Fountains of Wayne night started badly…
The first band was called Trevi…they were bad, epically bad.
My notes about Trevi include the comments…“They are to music what exxon is to environmental protections…” and “Now they are doing a rock song which sounds like Judas Priest would sound if you removed all traces of talent from the band members…” Yeah, they were that bad.
They seemed like nice enough guys and I hate to pick on them too much (one of my original reasons for not writing this review). But, they took up 45 minutes of my year that I’ll never get back. So, I wish them much success…and hope they improve somehow.
Next up was Mike Viola, he was in a group you’ve never heard of called “The Candy Butchers”, they wrote pretty cool power pop stuff. Then, along with one of the guys in FOW he wrote most of the cool songs from the Tom Hanks movie “That thing you do”. He didn’t do those songs….
He did his new album, which was fine enough singer/songwriter stuff. He even did a Dewey Cox song he wrote for the movie “Walk Hard” (Beautiful Life)…But, if you’re somewhat obscure, even if you’re talented. How do you ignore the one song you’ve written that the crowd might actually know? I mean, even Springsteen trots out “Born to Run” every night to offset “Outlaw Pete”. Mike, throw us a morsel and we’ll likely be happier following along with your current musical passions. Looking back a coupe months later, I couldn’t tell you the melody of anything he played….but, I could still hum “That Thing You Do” and it came out in 1996….
I love the Fountains of Wayne.
I didn’t love them so much this time.
There was a missing element that just left me feeling like they were sort of phoning in the show. I’ve seen them numerous times and they were always a lot of fun. This time I felt like they were a band who were gong through the motions. Their new CD is great (Sky Full of Holes), the selection of material was fine. There was just no spark. Even the (seemingly) improv part at the end with snippets of “Twilight Zone” (by Golden Earring), “Everybody Wants You”, “Jet Airliner” and “Do you Feel LIke We Do” fitting into their own “Radiation Vibe” was okay, but never reached the heights I’d expected.
If you’d never seen them, I’m sure it was a solid show. But, for me it fell short of what I’d seen before and expect out of them. I was thinking they felt like a band who knew their time had passed. They took their shot with “Stacy’s Mom”, but never quite scaled the charts the way one would have expected. So, this felt like “another show for another club of a few hundred people”….and it was served with a dose of realization this may be the limits of their success. They’ve put out four or five excellent albums and this is the best they’ve been able to do. It was a bit sad in a way. They are very talented, but it just seems like they can’t catch that break that will make them take off. Heck, maybe it was just an off night, but my overwhelming impression was of a band that had lost heart and was just going through the motions.
Here’s a clip off the new album done live on Letterman
Sadly, they didn’t do this…one of the strongest cuts on the new CD
And here’s something from their last CD
I hate to be so hard on them, I really do like their music. But, even two months later a vague disappointment lingers. It didn’t help that I saw Frank Turner within a few days of this show, and you’ve seen what I wrote about him previously. The comparison in such a short period of time was just too striking.
Continuing with my theme of reviewing out of order (and late)…mostly because I had time to do the bulk of the review at the show on my phone before I got home. Here is the review of my second Airborne Toxic Event show in five days. (Of course it’s taken me almost a week to wrap this up to actually post.)
A quiet laid back So Cal Sunday was the start to my last of five shows in less than two weeks. Combined with work travel I was pretty worn down and decided not to worry about arriving in time for the 3:00pm gates and the earlier outdoor acts. The fact that I’d just seen one if them up at the Fillmore (The Drowning Men) and wasn’t that impressed helped the decision a bit.
I rolled up and parked around 5:30 and grabbed a quick Tommy burger at City Walk. When I entered at about 6:15 there was a band called: Electric Guest playing. They weren’t horrible, nor were they memorable. The lead singer had a weird sort of vocal style that did nothing for me. I stayed for a couple songs, but wasn’t feeling they were going to improve much, I decided to wander a bit.
I walked the rest if the Festival Area in from of the Gibson. It was an odd mix of charities, food trucks and oddball exhibits. McDonalds was giving free Smoothie samples in-between the National Dodgeball Association and a charity to save the Los Angeles River (such as it is I guess…) They also had a couple ping pong tables if you were so inclined. To me it just felt tossed together and sort of half-assed. Much like the promotion had been for the show itself. I scanned the LA Weekly website a few days before the show and could find any good info….no list of bands playing outside, no list of exhibitors. It was a very weak effort on their part and that was reflected in the weird mix and vibe outside.
The doors opened at 6:30, so I went inside to await the 7:15 start, which thankfully was right on time. As a bonus, the engineer seemed hooked on the Beatles, so a nice soundtrack to wait with…certainly better than Electric Guest outside (sorry boys, keep at it and maybe things will improve.) Inside the Gibson was less a festival and more a straight ahead rock show. The only trace of “festival” was the crawl of sponsors on the screen between acts.
Delta Spirit was up first.
I had picked up their CD “History from Below” to try and get a sense of them going in. They (on CD and live) were a grungy mix of country rock…a dash of Fogerty, a smidgen of Neil Young. The first song “Bushwick Blues” showed them off to decent effect. They had a cool sort of dual drum sound where the keyboard player would move over and play a small kit in front of the drum riser. But, they showed off two new songs that they announced as “Torn in Two” and “Tear it Up”. Both seemed a little trite lyrically and didn’t seem headed in a good direction if they represent their new material. Not the worst band by far, but a long way still from being compelling enough to climb the bill…or to convince me to head back and see them again. Their set was a tight 45 minutes and really about the right length for what they had to offer. (A polite way to say they didn’t leave me wanting more….)
Here’s a live version of “Bushwick Blues”…again, they weren’t awful, they just need some work.
Built to Spill was up next:
Honestly, at an hour they played too long. The mix was bad, and the lead singers faint and wistful vocals were buried under a wall of three droning guitars. They have a great reputation, but they were a bad fit for this bill (judging from the bored looks of those around me) their set was lost on the majority of the half filled amphitheater. They would fit right in with Pavement or Modest Mouse….
This song “Conventional Wisdom” had a cool jammy sort of feel to it. But, by the end of the set they’d lost me to stand up and stretch my legs in the lobby.
Third on the bill was Tokyo Police Club:
They were ernest and energetic…and somewhat average. I realized that so many of the “indie” bands basically have a very similar sound and in fact are not very “independent” at all. The weirder ones, go too far off the map the the more mainstream ones end up sounding alike and sort of boring. I’d bought Elephant Shell and listened to it a few times. But, there just wasn’t much to set them apart. In a weird way they made me think of Two Door Cinema Club who I saw at Glastonbury and liked…but, without some key ingredient (Glastonbury, I suppose?) in their case. And for no particular reason, I also thought they were a bit like what the cast of Big Bang Theory would look and sound like if they somehow formed a band.
They had some challenges getting the audience engaged as well, even though the arena was about 2/3 full at this point. They tried a sing along and got a fairly tepid response on “Elephant Shell”…but even worse, near the end they did a “ooooh ooh ooooh ooh oooooo” sing along that tread dangerously close to “Bob and Doug – Take Off to the Great White North” territory….I don’t think that was the sound they were looking for…even if they are from Toronto….
Here’s their second song, “Nature of the Experiment”
Which brings me to Airborne Toxic Event and the second show in less than a week. At this point the hall was about 3/4 full, not a bad turnout and about three times the size of the crowd I’d seen them at in San Francisco. They were stellar, as good as the Fillmore, but in a slightly different way.
The biggest change was the addition of an orchestra, yep a full orchestra for about half of the show. (The Herb Alpert Orchestra and actually there was a small girls choir on some songs as well). As you can imagine, the addition of so much musical firepower added some layers of depth and color to some of the songs. Yet, I actually think the smaller Fillmore had brought out the best in the band as a straight ensemble. Plus, the thought the Fillmore selections, which were slightly different were also slightly better.
Starting once again with “All at Once” into “Half of Something Else” and then inserting “Wishing Well” into the set before “Letter to Georgia”. (The orchestra departing after Wishing Well). ”All for a Woman” was missing a little bit of the sharpness from San Francisco and didn’t connect for me as well as it had at the previous show. ”Happiness is Overrated” replaced “Numb” in the set and “Does this Mean You’re Moving On” and “Changing” swapped places. Papillon was dropped.
The orchestra rejoined for “Welcome to Your Wedding Day” which soared to an epic level beyond the great Fillmore performance (I credit the huge sound with some of that “epic-ness”. But, my notes from here out were pretty direct….”Sometime Around Midnight” was simply “stirring” and “All I Ever Wanted” was noted as “epic”. The set closer of “Innocence” was jotted down with a quote of the song lyrics…”Oh my god”….
Brilliant stuff.
The encore started as it had in San Francisco, a solo version of “The Graveyard by the House” that built and built until it was a full roar. The closing song “Missy” feature the same snippet of “I Fought the Law” along with introductions and solos by each section of the orchestra as well as the band. A nice move that brought attention to the kids of the orchestra and seemed like a very cool and respectful thing for the band to have done. They ended moments before midnight and I walked out with a buzzing and happy crowd.
It was a memorable set by a group that seems to be totally growing into larger and larger venues. It wasn’t a perfect evening, but it with the the band at the top of bill being so compelling, it was at least a darn good one overall.
This one will run out of order since I started most of it while at the show via my phone and since it’s nearly done I’ll post it before the Fountains of Wayne review that is still to be cleaned up and finished before I can post it…so many shows…so little time…
Anyway…
A business trip to San Francisco and a check of pollstar….and suddenly I’m at a historic venue that I’d always wanted to see. The historic Fillmore West at Geary & Fillmore Streets in San Francisco.
I ran the gauntlet of panhandlers and grabbed a quick cab ride from my hotel to the Fillmore. The Fillmore is one of those temples of rock music that I really wanted to check off my list of venues. I grabbed my ticket at will call and climbed the steps up to the main lobby where I was greeted by the traditional greeting of “Welcome to the Fillmore” I was offered an apple from the huge tub which had Bill Graham’s original “Dance Hall Permit Application” framed and displayed. (It’s dated March 15, 1966). The lobby os filled with large photos of acts who have played (mostly recently, but some of Clapton and Big Brother & the Holding Company also jumped out at me.)
I was invited to go upstairs to the bar and look at the amazing poster collection….it was really too much to even take in. You could spend a full day trying to read each one. There were some awesome photos up there too….the Clash backstage at a “Day on the Green” show with the Who. The Sex Pistols…The Who. Hard Rock may have the displays of stuff….but this place had the actual history in place. You could feel the room resonate with the ghosts of so many bands.
I was actually thinking about how many people had played there…and not just the huge acts that we all know. (The Dead, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, Santana, The Who, Elton John, The Allman Brothers, Cream, Pink Floyd and even Miles Davis). Can you imagine the Who or Cream in that tiny room with the faux elegant chandeliers, a crazy light show and piles upon piles of speakers roaring out “Young Man Blues” or “Sunshine of Your Love”?
But, I was also thinking about the unsung acts too, the guys maybe just above garage band level who fit into a slot way down the bill, but who trod that same stage with the same passion and emotion of the headliners that we still all talk about. I figured that a conservative number would be thousands of musicians have played that room and I wondered if playing the Fillmore was maybe a highlight of a short career that ended with them back working in a retail store or having a “normal” non-musical life. Something about the room just allowed your imagination to run away….maybe that’s why it’s so legendary?
I have to also call out the staff of the place as some of the nicest folks at a venue that I’ve ever dealt with. From the first greeting, you felt like you were hanging out with friends at a place where music was played. It was just a vibe that the staff there really love, appreciate and respect the place too. Honestly, after one show it became one of my favorite places to see a concert.
And speaking of the concert….all praise aside for the room, I guess I should mention a couple bands played.
First up was the Drowning Men, a San Diego band with an “indie” sound and not much more that really caught my attention. They played well enough…they threw in a Theremin solo (as with an accordion solo, a Theremin solo is always a plus in any rock show)….they seemed ernest and nice and appreciated the crowd. But, nothing ever really set them apart to my ears where I would want to go buy their stuff. It just didn’t resonate much with me.
After a short break Airborne Toxic Event took the stage. There was a huge jump in the energy of the room and a tighter sound than the opener. ”All at Once” followed by “Something New” leading into a more rarely played “A Letter to Georgia”. BY the time they had reached the fourth song “All for a Woman” things had really clicked into place for me. They were tight, had a great mix and the band really played off each other well.
It was at this point I caught a faint whiff of someone smoking pot, which just totally completed the picture for the show and the venue. I also realized just how “arena ready” their material was. They write in a very big and anthemic way. I’d be surprised if their career path doesn’t keep pushing them to larger and larger venues. I some ways I thought of the Killers as a good reference point. Not really the same sound, but the same aspirations and reach in they way they write.
They covered pretty much all of both CD’s they’ve done: “Numb” and “Changing” led to a really fun sort of group drum solo that was a fresh and fun way to mix a percussion break into the show. ”Missy” and “Gasoline” were latter set highlights, but the best of all was “Welcome to Your Wedding Day” which was not only their most political song, but performed razor sharp.
The set closed with “All I Ever Wanted” and even more pot smoke wafting around me…it was exactly the vision you’d have of a concert in San Francisco. Perfect ending of an excellent show.
Encore time….They started with a nice solo version of “The Graveyard by the House” that built to a full band and then led to an excellent cover of “The Book of Love”….Peter Gabriel may give them a run for their money on that song, but it was quite good and I really was happy they added it in (They did a version of it on their live CD as well).
The last encore payed homage to some of my favorites….Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire”, “I Fought the Law” and then a great punk-ish take on “Folsom Prison Blues”…I even appreciated the play out music…”California Stars” by Woody Guthrie.
I hung around as the crowd cleared and just soaked in the room and the vibe. I’m not sure if the venue made the concert special, or if the band did…I guess I’ll find out when I see them at the Gibson Amphitheater on Sunday, I wonder if the more familiar venue will change my focus to the music and if I’ll like it as much? At the same time…it will be a huge homecoming show for the band, so I wonder if the setlist will change? It’ll be fun to see.
But, for now I’d say they are very much worth seeing…a band with ambition and a big sound on their way up and still hungry is a powerful sight to see…
