> As a long time strong disliker of all Boston sports teams (boarding school
> in Massachusetts will do that), I take solace in the theory that teams
> that get taken to 7 games in the first round by 37-45 8th seeds with the
> worst record in the playoffs may not be likely to win a championship. One
> can always hope anyway...
> Ah feel yer pain! Disliking Boston sports teams must be a painful life
> these days: Sox in first place, Celtics back on track. Patriots posting
> only 17 win season in history, even the Bruins looking good for next year.
> Doug, I'd convert if I were you. Just blame it on the time you spent up
> here as a kid. Your buddies will understand!
Yeah, they've had a nice little run recently. On balance, I'm glad to say
though, it's been very rewarding to root against Boston teams over the
years. Collectively they've spent a lot more time sucking ass than they
have winning championships (or in many cases half their games). This notion
has been known to succumb to the "short term loss of long term memory"
syndrome and so is often absent in the delirium of the moment
(understandable) and for years afterwards (less so but worth its weight in
entertainment value).
It is both instructive and amusing to watch years of hard earned humility
turn like alchemists' gold into arrogance and is especially worthwhile to
watch it turn back when the inevitable happens. Indeed, it is almost worth
having to listen to the revisionist "Boston as sports dynasty town" history
that inevitably arises during the countless eons of glory that Boston has
been blessed with between those occasional returns to "equilibrium" (AKA
"mediocrity").
Perhaps the current entitled version of the Boston sports fan might do well
to recall that conquering Roman generals returning home in the lead chariot
of their victory parade in front of all of Rome were always accompanied
there by a slave, who whispered in their ear "All glory is fleeting..."
Nah.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
Was (Not Was) at BB King's Blues Bar NYC jan 2005
This is the nastiest, tightest funk band I have ever seen and I have
seen PFunk at least a dozen times. It was just plain sick. There was
not a booty left unshaken and they had to call in the NYC Chemical
Containment Squad to clean up the leftover green funk on the stage when
they were done. They're working on a new album, but of the oldies,
"Born to Laugh at Tornados" is great but "What Up Dog?" is the best
IMHO. Damn those boys can play.
ND
People get up
Get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
seen PFunk at least a dozen times. It was just plain sick. There was
not a booty left unshaken and they had to call in the NYC Chemical
Containment Squad to clean up the leftover green funk on the stage when
they were done. They're working on a new album, but of the oldies,
"Born to Laugh at Tornados" is great but "What Up Dog?" is the best
IMHO. Damn those boys can play.
ND
People get up
Get on the floor
Everybody walk the dinosaur
Reign in Hell by William "The Man" Diehl: a book review
This is the worst book ever written. Even worse than the bible. What
a piece of shit. Its plot is infantile and its characterization a
(unintentional) joke. All the good guys hace "chisled good looks",
"steely blue eyes" and dongs the size of the Empire State Building.
All the gals have "ramrod straight" postures, are "drop dead gorgeous"
and have immaculate vaginas. Despite this, they almost never have sex
and when they do, it is in the most tasteful possible fashion.
The bad guys on the other hand "commit unspeakable perversions for 3
hours at at a time with 3 teenage women who are in a state of grace
(!?)". They are "shifty-eyed" and "weasely" except for the big baddie
who is "bullet-headed" and has "bushy dark eyebrows". The bad guys are
poor and don't pay taxes unlike the goodies, who, despite one severe
life setback each, are now rich, successful and live in two story
penthouses with estates on the lake.
The good guys team, "the wild bunch" consists of a shrewed yid who
handles the money, a mick, who, astonishingly enough, is "streetsmart"
and "two-fisted" and a suprisingly cheerful, hardworking and
subserviant slope. I must have missed the dense pollack. The book
further adheres to reality in that Martin Vale, the "hero", and TWB
prepare for and do battle with fanatical religous zealots for months
with no ETOH, profanity or other vices. There is however grim bunker
humor exchanged between them. Sadly, none of this is communicated to
the reader, who must content himself with his own commentary on the
leaden dialogue and neanderthal plot, ie. after 2 more pages of praise
for MV and TWB, one is forced to amuse onself with witticisms like "why
don't you just fellate the whole cast and be done with it? That way we
don't have to read this piece of shit." Sort of like talking back to a
lousy TV program, which this resembles in more ways than one. Oh yeah,
one other "redeeming" feature, all the bad guys are religous (hi
rolly). So, in finishing, I want to be sure not to reveal any
important plot points so the good guys win in the end but there is a
twist.
a piece of shit. Its plot is infantile and its characterization a
(unintentional) joke. All the good guys hace "chisled good looks",
"steely blue eyes" and dongs the size of the Empire State Building.
All the gals have "ramrod straight" postures, are "drop dead gorgeous"
and have immaculate vaginas. Despite this, they almost never have sex
and when they do, it is in the most tasteful possible fashion.
The bad guys on the other hand "commit unspeakable perversions for 3
hours at at a time with 3 teenage women who are in a state of grace
(!?)". They are "shifty-eyed" and "weasely" except for the big baddie
who is "bullet-headed" and has "bushy dark eyebrows". The bad guys are
poor and don't pay taxes unlike the goodies, who, despite one severe
life setback each, are now rich, successful and live in two story
penthouses with estates on the lake.
The good guys team, "the wild bunch" consists of a shrewed yid who
handles the money, a mick, who, astonishingly enough, is "streetsmart"
and "two-fisted" and a suprisingly cheerful, hardworking and
subserviant slope. I must have missed the dense pollack. The book
further adheres to reality in that Martin Vale, the "hero", and TWB
prepare for and do battle with fanatical religous zealots for months
with no ETOH, profanity or other vices. There is however grim bunker
humor exchanged between them. Sadly, none of this is communicated to
the reader, who must content himself with his own commentary on the
leaden dialogue and neanderthal plot, ie. after 2 more pages of praise
for MV and TWB, one is forced to amuse onself with witticisms like "why
don't you just fellate the whole cast and be done with it? That way we
don't have to read this piece of shit." Sort of like talking back to a
lousy TV program, which this resembles in more ways than one. Oh yeah,
one other "redeeming" feature, all the bad guys are religous (hi
rolly). So, in finishing, I want to be sure not to reveal any
important plot points so the good guys win in the end but there is a
twist.
Richard Thompson, 6/21/07 Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
Richard Thompson, 6/21 Prospect Park, Brooklyn, NY
I'm not going to even try to review this show. It was simply the best
show I have seen a very long time. Absolutely magnificant. Fucking
incredible A to Z. If he comes to your town and you do not go see him
that would be a mistake on your part.
I'm not going to even try to review this show. It was simply the best
show I have seen a very long time. Absolutely magnificant. Fucking
incredible A to Z. If he comes to your town and you do not go see him
that would be a mistake on your part.
Larry Campbell interview
Larry Campbell: Rock 'N' Roll's Right Hand Man David Schultz 2007-04-22
As an anchor in Bob Dylan's best band since The Band, a charter member of Levon Helm's Midnight Rambles and a recent Friend of Phil Lesh, Larry Campbell has entertained crowds one hundred thousand strong, enthralled intimate gatherings of a couple dozen and even played for a Pope. So why is it then that Larry Campbell isn't a household name? Talented enough to be star in his own right, Campbell is that rare performer whose main concern is satisfying an audience of one - himself. In sitting down with the recognizable, but not always identifiable, guitarist, fiddler and multi-instrumentalist, you get a sense of how the humble-yet-confident gentleman has become one of the industry's most respected sidemen, session musicians and producers.
Thirty years in the music business have not been hard on Campbell. Just a little bit older than fifty, he looks much younger, showing none of the signs of road weariness or poor living sadly typical of rock veterans. There is nothing hasty about Campbell, as without being calculating, he speaks deliberately, directly and honestly, exuding a friendly and welcoming warmth. In discussing a number of the musicians he's played with over the years, he is open with his thoughts but careful not to speak for others, making no attempt to guess what might be in the mind of anyone else. I had the opportunity to chat with Campbell a couple days after he accompanied The Band's Levon Helm at a pair of sold-out shows at New York City's Beacon Theater.
The Beacon Theater shows marked the first time that Helm had brought one of his Midnight Rambles outside of the cozy confines of his Woodstock, New York studio. "We had been trying to get [Levon] to take one of these theater offers for a while, explained Campbell, who has been involved with the Rambles since their inception. "For whatever reason, he was hesitant to do it."
For his first Theater-style Ramble, Helm surrounded himself with the musicians that have become associated with his All-Star jam sessions. Along with guest Warren Haynes, who sat in on a stirring version of "I Shall Be Released," the shows featured other Ramble veterans like New Orleans legend Dr. John, Jimmy Vivino of the Max Weinberg Seven, blues vocalist Little Sammy Davis and a backing vocals section that included Campbell's wife Teresa Williams and Levon's daughter Amy Helm (whose own group, Ollabelle, opened both shows).
The near-weekly Rambles, traditionally held at Helm's upstate New York home for a couple hundred fans, began while Helm recovered from radiation therapy associated with his treatment for throat cancer. "It was a way for him to make some money without having to go anywhere," joked Campbell with clear affection in his voice for The Band's legendary drummer. "In the beginning, he wasn't singing, just playing drums; Little Sammy Davis took the vocals," explains Campbell of the Rambles' humble roots. "It was just Levon playing drums in a blues band. Sammy's great, but people want to hear Levon sing." Any fears that chemotherapy would rob the world of Helm's voice, which marks so many of The Band's most recognizable songs, were soon quelled. When asked about any damage to Helm's vocal cords, Campbell quickly replied that his voice sounds great. "It's different. You hear the damage that's been done but it's got all the honesty and fire that's always been there. None of that is missing. It might even be enhanced by the grittiness in his voice now. The guy is amazing, just amazing."
Despite Campbell and others pushing him to return to a larger stage, Helm resisted the urge. "He hasn't done a big theater show like that since the mid 90s, since The Band," said Campbell. "He wasn't sure how the intimacy of what we were doing up there [with the Rambles] was going to translate into a theater." Once the opportunity to play at the Beacon Theater, a venue that the Allman Brothers Band calls home for their annual spring residency, presented itself, Campbell realized the fortuitous timing. "We all got around Levon and said, 'We're ready to it. You're ready to do it. The world is waiting to hear what Levon Helm's been doing.'" Once the tickets sold out in 15 minutes, "it gave Levon a really good idea what's going on out there. The first show couldn't have gone better. He gave it everything he had and then did it again the next night. The crowd was with us from beginning to end."
Even if Campbell tried to hide his estimable feelings for Helm, the respect and admiration are clear in his voice when discussing Helm's career. "There's only a few guys around that have not lost their credibility from that era," he explains. An informed statement coming from someone who's shared the stage with a significant number of classic rock royalty. "All those guys from the Dead, they never did anything for any other reason than the music. You gotta make a living and you want to do that as well as you can. But if you compromised the music, [the fans] wouldn't have anything to do with it."
Campbell's most well-known and critically lauded stint as a musician occurred while playing with another of the Sixties-era artists who hasn't compromised himself: Bob Dylan. As part of Dylan's Never Ending Tour group, Campbell was a central part of a band often referred to as Dylan's best since The Band. "I've heard that," Campbell says with a pleasant sense of pride. What separated this group of musicians from the dozens of others that accompanied Dylan since the early Seventies? "What made the band great when we were playing with Bob, and I thought this all along, was that we all shared a common sensitivity to the music," said Campbell after giving the matter some serious thought. "When Bob originally came out [in the 60s] and did his solo acoustic guitar thing, he played a great acoustic guitar - great time, great feel, great groove. I saw The Band with Bob at Carnegie Hall when they did their Woody Guthrie tribute in '68 and that was the first time I'd seen Bob with a band. I only saw him once before solo. They seemed to me like just a big extension of that acoustic guitar. It wasn't about flashy playing, it wasn't about hot licks, it wasn't about anything but making that song, propelling that song. That band with Charlie [Sexton], Tony [Garnier], George [Recile] and [David] Kemper before him and myself: it had that element to it. It wasn't about flashy playing and everyone was really sensitive to the song. That's the only way I can see it."
In his time with Bob Dylan, Levon Helm and Phil Lesh, Campbell's been entrusted with some of classic rock's most iconic guitar passages. "That's right," says Campbell with a smile and a chuckle. He isn't daunted by the significant historical weight of his role in keeping a segment of classic rock alive and vital. "When I first started playing with Bob, I didn't have any of that to worry about because everything gets reinvented with Bob. We're just going to do what we do and my personality is just going to be what it is. You've got to be sensitive to the tunes, to what they mean to you. I didn't have to try and fill anybody's shoes."
In working with guitar riffs as well known as "Like A Rolling Stone," "Highway 61 Revisited" or "All Along The Watchtower," did he worry more about Dylan's reaction or the audience's reaction? "Honestly I'm worried about how I'm going to react, how I'm going to feel," he explains. "That sounds like a cop out answer but the fans' reaction is the last thing you're thinking about. What's most important to me is to be sensitive to what the singer is putting out. Try to read what that is and what I can best do to enhance that. Rarely do I hit the mark," he says modestly. "But that's what I strive for. The fan reaction - as important as that is in its own way - has to be the last thing you think about; because if that's any impetus at all, you're going to miss the point." Campbell hit the mark more often than he gives himself credit for. When he left Dylan's band in 2004, it took two guitarists to replace him.
An occupational hazard when playing with an icon like Dylan: sometimes it's not just the fans' opinion you have to worry about. One of Campbell's earlier shows with Dylan was the 1997 show for Pope John Paul II at the Italian Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, Italy; a show that has come back into the public eye with Pope Benedict's recent comments criticizing Dylan's appearance and decrying the singer as a "false prophet." In addition to the surreal nature of a ten year old show being back in the news, Campbell is slightly irked at the Pope's characterization of Dylan. "This Pope is saying it's a bad idea," referring to the performance. "Bob never claimed to be a prophet. He never put that on himself. He moved a lot a people and moved them in a good way. What's wrong with that? What does that have to do with the Pope? [Pope John Paul II] asked him to come over there because he knew that Bob had a positive influence on a few generations of young kids. A positive influence; not prophetic, not divine. What does this have to do with Jesus or anything? The Pope should mind his own business."
The large crowd at Bologna was just one of many staggering crowds Campbell has entertained. As it turns out, it's not that daunting a task. "It's easier than a room of 200 people. You get out there and its 300,000 people, it's so ridiculous, you can't even comprehend it," he says of playing large shows like Bonnaroo. "You step out on the stage and the stage is insignificant compared to the crowd. It's like you're standing in front of an ocean, its not like you're standing in front of people. Everyone is so far away you can't see the eyes of anyone." He first experienced this "island" feeling while accompanying Cyndi Lauper at a show in Holland. "She did 'True Colors' with just me on the fiddle before half a million people. Halfway into it I was aware; I thought about that ...
Douglas T Lilley
As an anchor in Bob Dylan's best band since The Band, a charter member of Levon Helm's Midnight Rambles and a recent Friend of Phil Lesh, Larry Campbell has entertained crowds one hundred thousand strong, enthralled intimate gatherings of a couple dozen and even played for a Pope. So why is it then that Larry Campbell isn't a household name? Talented enough to be star in his own right, Campbell is that rare performer whose main concern is satisfying an audience of one - himself. In sitting down with the recognizable, but not always identifiable, guitarist, fiddler and multi-instrumentalist, you get a sense of how the humble-yet-confident gentleman has become one of the industry's most respected sidemen, session musicians and producers.
Thirty years in the music business have not been hard on Campbell. Just a little bit older than fifty, he looks much younger, showing none of the signs of road weariness or poor living sadly typical of rock veterans. There is nothing hasty about Campbell, as without being calculating, he speaks deliberately, directly and honestly, exuding a friendly and welcoming warmth. In discussing a number of the musicians he's played with over the years, he is open with his thoughts but careful not to speak for others, making no attempt to guess what might be in the mind of anyone else. I had the opportunity to chat with Campbell a couple days after he accompanied The Band's Levon Helm at a pair of sold-out shows at New York City's Beacon Theater.
The Beacon Theater shows marked the first time that Helm had brought one of his Midnight Rambles outside of the cozy confines of his Woodstock, New York studio. "We had been trying to get [Levon] to take one of these theater offers for a while, explained Campbell, who has been involved with the Rambles since their inception. "For whatever reason, he was hesitant to do it."
For his first Theater-style Ramble, Helm surrounded himself with the musicians that have become associated with his All-Star jam sessions. Along with guest Warren Haynes, who sat in on a stirring version of "I Shall Be Released," the shows featured other Ramble veterans like New Orleans legend Dr. John, Jimmy Vivino of the Max Weinberg Seven, blues vocalist Little Sammy Davis and a backing vocals section that included Campbell's wife Teresa Williams and Levon's daughter Amy Helm (whose own group, Ollabelle, opened both shows).
The near-weekly Rambles, traditionally held at Helm's upstate New York home for a couple hundred fans, began while Helm recovered from radiation therapy associated with his treatment for throat cancer. "It was a way for him to make some money without having to go anywhere," joked Campbell with clear affection in his voice for The Band's legendary drummer. "In the beginning, he wasn't singing, just playing drums; Little Sammy Davis took the vocals," explains Campbell of the Rambles' humble roots. "It was just Levon playing drums in a blues band. Sammy's great, but people want to hear Levon sing." Any fears that chemotherapy would rob the world of Helm's voice, which marks so many of The Band's most recognizable songs, were soon quelled. When asked about any damage to Helm's vocal cords, Campbell quickly replied that his voice sounds great. "It's different. You hear the damage that's been done but it's got all the honesty and fire that's always been there. None of that is missing. It might even be enhanced by the grittiness in his voice now. The guy is amazing, just amazing."
Despite Campbell and others pushing him to return to a larger stage, Helm resisted the urge. "He hasn't done a big theater show like that since the mid 90s, since The Band," said Campbell. "He wasn't sure how the intimacy of what we were doing up there [with the Rambles] was going to translate into a theater." Once the opportunity to play at the Beacon Theater, a venue that the Allman Brothers Band calls home for their annual spring residency, presented itself, Campbell realized the fortuitous timing. "We all got around Levon and said, 'We're ready to it. You're ready to do it. The world is waiting to hear what Levon Helm's been doing.'" Once the tickets sold out in 15 minutes, "it gave Levon a really good idea what's going on out there. The first show couldn't have gone better. He gave it everything he had and then did it again the next night. The crowd was with us from beginning to end."
Even if Campbell tried to hide his estimable feelings for Helm, the respect and admiration are clear in his voice when discussing Helm's career. "There's only a few guys around that have not lost their credibility from that era," he explains. An informed statement coming from someone who's shared the stage with a significant number of classic rock royalty. "All those guys from the Dead, they never did anything for any other reason than the music. You gotta make a living and you want to do that as well as you can. But if you compromised the music, [the fans] wouldn't have anything to do with it."
Campbell's most well-known and critically lauded stint as a musician occurred while playing with another of the Sixties-era artists who hasn't compromised himself: Bob Dylan. As part of Dylan's Never Ending Tour group, Campbell was a central part of a band often referred to as Dylan's best since The Band. "I've heard that," Campbell says with a pleasant sense of pride. What separated this group of musicians from the dozens of others that accompanied Dylan since the early Seventies? "What made the band great when we were playing with Bob, and I thought this all along, was that we all shared a common sensitivity to the music," said Campbell after giving the matter some serious thought. "When Bob originally came out [in the 60s] and did his solo acoustic guitar thing, he played a great acoustic guitar - great time, great feel, great groove. I saw The Band with Bob at Carnegie Hall when they did their Woody Guthrie tribute in '68 and that was the first time I'd seen Bob with a band. I only saw him once before solo. They seemed to me like just a big extension of that acoustic guitar. It wasn't about flashy playing, it wasn't about hot licks, it wasn't about anything but making that song, propelling that song. That band with Charlie [Sexton], Tony [Garnier], George [Recile] and [David] Kemper before him and myself: it had that element to it. It wasn't about flashy playing and everyone was really sensitive to the song. That's the only way I can see it."
In his time with Bob Dylan, Levon Helm and Phil Lesh, Campbell's been entrusted with some of classic rock's most iconic guitar passages. "That's right," says Campbell with a smile and a chuckle. He isn't daunted by the significant historical weight of his role in keeping a segment of classic rock alive and vital. "When I first started playing with Bob, I didn't have any of that to worry about because everything gets reinvented with Bob. We're just going to do what we do and my personality is just going to be what it is. You've got to be sensitive to the tunes, to what they mean to you. I didn't have to try and fill anybody's shoes."
In working with guitar riffs as well known as "Like A Rolling Stone," "Highway 61 Revisited" or "All Along The Watchtower," did he worry more about Dylan's reaction or the audience's reaction? "Honestly I'm worried about how I'm going to react, how I'm going to feel," he explains. "That sounds like a cop out answer but the fans' reaction is the last thing you're thinking about. What's most important to me is to be sensitive to what the singer is putting out. Try to read what that is and what I can best do to enhance that. Rarely do I hit the mark," he says modestly. "But that's what I strive for. The fan reaction - as important as that is in its own way - has to be the last thing you think about; because if that's any impetus at all, you're going to miss the point." Campbell hit the mark more often than he gives himself credit for. When he left Dylan's band in 2004, it took two guitarists to replace him.
An occupational hazard when playing with an icon like Dylan: sometimes it's not just the fans' opinion you have to worry about. One of Campbell's earlier shows with Dylan was the 1997 show for Pope John Paul II at the Italian Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, Italy; a show that has come back into the public eye with Pope Benedict's recent comments criticizing Dylan's appearance and decrying the singer as a "false prophet." In addition to the surreal nature of a ten year old show being back in the news, Campbell is slightly irked at the Pope's characterization of Dylan. "This Pope is saying it's a bad idea," referring to the performance. "Bob never claimed to be a prophet. He never put that on himself. He moved a lot a people and moved them in a good way. What's wrong with that? What does that have to do with the Pope? [Pope John Paul II] asked him to come over there because he knew that Bob had a positive influence on a few generations of young kids. A positive influence; not prophetic, not divine. What does this have to do with Jesus or anything? The Pope should mind his own business."
The large crowd at Bologna was just one of many staggering crowds Campbell has entertained. As it turns out, it's not that daunting a task. "It's easier than a room of 200 people. You get out there and its 300,000 people, it's so ridiculous, you can't even comprehend it," he says of playing large shows like Bonnaroo. "You step out on the stage and the stage is insignificant compared to the crowd. It's like you're standing in front of an ocean, its not like you're standing in front of people. Everyone is so far away you can't see the eyes of anyone." He first experienced this "island" feeling while accompanying Cyndi Lauper at a show in Holland. "She did 'True Colors' with just me on the fiddle before half a million people. Halfway into it I was aware; I thought about that ...
Douglas T Lilley
Well, I've seen two of the finest musicians around in the last week, RT and Levon. The Levon Helm Band is sublimely talented ensemble. The band is: LH Larry Campbell and Jim Vivino on giutar Mike Merrit on bass These were the only four people on stage all night.
The rest was a rotating cast consisting of: Amy Helm Fiona McBride Glenn Pasticha all from Ollabelle Teresa Williams, Campbell's supremely talented wife Little Sammy Davis A smoking 4 piece horn section another keyboard player. Highlights included everything he played. Especially notable were: Ophelia Rag Mama Rag I don't Want to Hang Up my Rock 'n Roll Shoes Atlantic City Chest Fever (with a jaw dropping intro by Campbell playing Garth Hudson's part on guitar, LC and Vivino just bring in the most virtuosic possible fashion) Man of Constant Sorrow I Don't Have a Home no More (Woody Gutherie tune sung by Vivino) Deep Elem Blues (Campbell) Whatever Amy Helm's song was The Weight W.S. Walcott Medicine Show Remedy I Ain't Got No Home The rest of the songs were even better. The crowd knew every word to just about every song, talk about a singalong. Ollabelle did Brokedown again, to keep it on topic (hah)
The rest was a rotating cast consisting of: Amy Helm Fiona McBride Glenn Pasticha all from Ollabelle Teresa Williams, Campbell's supremely talented wife Little Sammy Davis A smoking 4 piece horn section another keyboard player. Highlights included everything he played. Especially notable were: Ophelia Rag Mama Rag I don't Want to Hang Up my Rock 'n Roll Shoes Atlantic City Chest Fever (with a jaw dropping intro by Campbell playing Garth Hudson's part on guitar, LC and Vivino just bring in the most virtuosic possible fashion) Man of Constant Sorrow I Don't Have a Home no More (Woody Gutherie tune sung by Vivino) Deep Elem Blues (Campbell) Whatever Amy Helm's song was The Weight W.S. Walcott Medicine Show Remedy I Ain't Got No Home The rest of the songs were even better. The crowd knew every word to just about every song, talk about a singalong. Ollabelle did Brokedown again, to keep it on topic (hah)
I saw the ABros twice in March, and while it would be kind of silly and pointless to compare the two bands, I left the Ridgefield play house with a similar sense of euphoria that I left the Beacon Theatre with a few months ago. Two months into the tour, DB is playing with passion and intensity and GS is a has solidifed into very impressive ensemble. The Ridgefield PlayHouse is a cozy 500 seat redone school auditorium with great acoustics and a good bar (from which they allow you to bring what you want into the music hall). The worst seat in the house is the equivalent of halfway back on the floor of the Beacon. GS opened with High Falls, then Statesboro. Other first set highlights included a riveting Stormy Monday sung by their talented, attractive and very enthusiastic female vocalist, Blue Sky (with an extended reggae/synchopated Franklin's Tower-everyone thought that was the tune-opening and featuring that always wonderful guitar solo screaming to sky one more time) and a semi-reworked Elizabeth Reed to close the set. For the songs that I saw both bands do (BS, IMOER, One Way Out, Jessica, Southbound), GS had by far the more innovative, newer takes on the songs. The ABros, god bless 'em, do many of the tunes structurally more or less as they have always done them, eg. IMOER is not all that different from the Fillmore East version. I say structurally because of course the guitar solos are always as fresh as can be, I'm referring to the framework of the songs. GS, on the other hand, throws in new intros, reggae influenced beats, changes in emphasis, riffs I've never heard before etc. This is probably in part because they don't have the extensive covers and new material that the ABros do to keep things fresh, so they do it with new takes on the old stuff. The second set included 7 Turns, Back Where We Belong (?), No one Left to Run With, OWO, Jessica (with solid emphatic quotes from Mountain Jam & Les Brers in A Minor and the keyboard player doing a wonderful job with that sainted Chuck Leavell piano riff), and Southbound (probably the hardest jammed song of the night). The encore was Louie Louie...nah. You all know damn well what the encore was. Every song was distinctive and fully explored, nothing was left on the table. The second lead guitar was especially impressive as was the bass player, Bett's son played 3rd guitar, the sound was in no way muddy or crowded despite the 3 guitars. Talking to a member of the crew, I got the interesting news that Betts is still a 25% partner in the ABros (with, I assume Jaimoe, Trucks & Gregg) due to a "brother for life" contract signed long ago and that the band is spending big money trying to change this with no success so far. Two implications are that Haynes, Derek & Quinones are essentially (no doubt well paid) hired hands and that Betts ain't touring because he needs the dough. Betts said during the second set that he's playing the Beacon July 26, that it's going to be the first time he's played there in a while time and it's a very, very important show to him. If you're planning on going, see you there.
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