Friday, September 22, 2006
Thursday Rock Review
Went with the boys to Jeff Beck at the lecture hall in the Denver Convention Center and had a good time, but it wasn't heaven. Let me explain. Went with college friend Gary to see Beck at the Fillmore just after Who Else? came out what? five years ago, and that was heaven. One of his great new songs, Brush with the Blues, is a live version on the album and he makes a few mistakes. He did it perfectly at the concert we saw. Then we saw him a few years ago and he mailed it in. This concert yesterday was midway between the two--flights of guitar perfection between rush jobs.
Let's start with the basics. The Lecture Hall is not destined to be a world renowned concert venue (like Red Rocks is) even thought the sound was fine (not overwhelming) and the seats were comfortable. My youngest daughter had graduation from high school right there and I think it is a better venue for things like that. It did not sell out. The average age was about 38 I think and the ratio of women to men was 13 to one and every woman there we asked admitted she was there because she loved her husband/boyfriend rather than loved Jeff Beck. Everyone (even Jeff Beck) wore jeans--kind of a Levi Fair. He played for just over two hours and did two encores the second of which was a brilliant version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. From the distance we saw him from (20 yards), Beck looked like he indeed has a portrait of incredible ugliness up in his attic while he looks just like he did in 1972 (he's 62). Same hair for sure (although I thought I saw a bald spot on top the size of a quarter). He wore a leather vest over a sleveless white t shirt. Of note to guitar god poseurs all over the world, he played one guitar beginning to end (a Fender stratocaster) with no pick and never even had to tune it despite bending the notes all over the place. At the concert on Monday by contrast, Crow's guitarist changed guitars every other song, one time from a Gibson Les Paul all in gold to a Gibson Les Paul with the sunburst color pattern. That was a head scratcher.
Jeff Beck had said he was digging deep for this tour and indeed he started with a verse-less version of Shapes of Things from The Yardbird days (also on Truth). The majority of the songs sung by the guest vocalist (more on her below) were also from Truth -- Morning Dew, Zeppelin's You Shook Me and I Ain't Superstitious as well as some standard blues. She was a tall, slender looker with great lungs (if you know what I mean) who could belt it out just like Janis--a very welcome addition to the band. Jeff Beck mentioned her name three times but it was swallowed up by his Ron Wood at the end of his sentence imitation so I have no idea who the girl was. Indeed, who of Beck's stature is more taciturn on stage? He rarely said anything on his microphone other than the names of the people in his band (at the end of the concert)--no introduction, no chatting, no 'how you doing Denver?' , no naming the song--you're just supposed to know; he didn't even say thank you but once or twice. I think a lot of musicians should study that part of his performance--literally shut up and play.
There were a lot of songs from the 70s semi jazz albums with a feature on the good songs on There and Back where I think he did his best work last night. He did the good ones from Guitar Shop and a few off the latest album (but not My Thing, darn it), only one from Who Else? which I think is as strong as any album he's made. I've always thought that Jeff Beck could play everything anyone else could play on the guitar but few could play what he could. There were times, like when he was concentrating with the slide to get the precise demi-hemi-quaver, that he was indeed untouchable. When he makes the guitar mimic the human voice, and he's in the zone, there is little modern rock that sounds better (he was in the grove with the Beatles' A Day in the Life and the song from The Wizard of Oz--more like mailing it in with Stevie Wonder's Cause We've Ended as Lovers). Curt, who plays guitar well, was periodically giving his sign for "wow," a nervous laugh of approval, when Beck did something amazing on the guitar. I'm just a guitar sound consumer, not a producer, so I'm taking Curt's numerous laughs as a sign that Beck continues to be amazing on guitar. That's the end of the praise.
Gary, who is a drummer, says the new drummer should be fired. I did notice a few failures to synch up. The new keyboard player was very good and could imitate Jan Hammer to a T but was to my mind uninspired. The same old bassist (who changed basses once or twice??) was great again but ironically he sounded better back away from the stage. I can't explain that. I just wish that he had been more jazzy on the jazz fusion songs (I know that's a flip-flop from the Hornsby concert--so sue me) and drew them out rather than rushed through them. The best thing about Brush with the Blues is the timing of the silence juxtaposed with the technical brilliance of the cooking part and then being instantly back to restraint and perfection. You ruin the song to rush it.
Anyway, it was a solid B+ and I'd still see him anytime, anywhere.
Let's start with the basics. The Lecture Hall is not destined to be a world renowned concert venue (like Red Rocks is) even thought the sound was fine (not overwhelming) and the seats were comfortable. My youngest daughter had graduation from high school right there and I think it is a better venue for things like that. It did not sell out. The average age was about 38 I think and the ratio of women to men was 13 to one and every woman there we asked admitted she was there because she loved her husband/boyfriend rather than loved Jeff Beck. Everyone (even Jeff Beck) wore jeans--kind of a Levi Fair. He played for just over two hours and did two encores the second of which was a brilliant version of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. From the distance we saw him from (20 yards), Beck looked like he indeed has a portrait of incredible ugliness up in his attic while he looks just like he did in 1972 (he's 62). Same hair for sure (although I thought I saw a bald spot on top the size of a quarter). He wore a leather vest over a sleveless white t shirt. Of note to guitar god poseurs all over the world, he played one guitar beginning to end (a Fender stratocaster) with no pick and never even had to tune it despite bending the notes all over the place. At the concert on Monday by contrast, Crow's guitarist changed guitars every other song, one time from a Gibson Les Paul all in gold to a Gibson Les Paul with the sunburst color pattern. That was a head scratcher.
Jeff Beck had said he was digging deep for this tour and indeed he started with a verse-less version of Shapes of Things from The Yardbird days (also on Truth). The majority of the songs sung by the guest vocalist (more on her below) were also from Truth -- Morning Dew, Zeppelin's You Shook Me and I Ain't Superstitious as well as some standard blues. She was a tall, slender looker with great lungs (if you know what I mean) who could belt it out just like Janis--a very welcome addition to the band. Jeff Beck mentioned her name three times but it was swallowed up by his Ron Wood at the end of his sentence imitation so I have no idea who the girl was. Indeed, who of Beck's stature is more taciturn on stage? He rarely said anything on his microphone other than the names of the people in his band (at the end of the concert)--no introduction, no chatting, no 'how you doing Denver?' , no naming the song--you're just supposed to know; he didn't even say thank you but once or twice. I think a lot of musicians should study that part of his performance--literally shut up and play.
There were a lot of songs from the 70s semi jazz albums with a feature on the good songs on There and Back where I think he did his best work last night. He did the good ones from Guitar Shop and a few off the latest album (but not My Thing, darn it), only one from Who Else? which I think is as strong as any album he's made. I've always thought that Jeff Beck could play everything anyone else could play on the guitar but few could play what he could. There were times, like when he was concentrating with the slide to get the precise demi-hemi-quaver, that he was indeed untouchable. When he makes the guitar mimic the human voice, and he's in the zone, there is little modern rock that sounds better (he was in the grove with the Beatles' A Day in the Life and the song from The Wizard of Oz--more like mailing it in with Stevie Wonder's Cause We've Ended as Lovers). Curt, who plays guitar well, was periodically giving his sign for "wow," a nervous laugh of approval, when Beck did something amazing on the guitar. I'm just a guitar sound consumer, not a producer, so I'm taking Curt's numerous laughs as a sign that Beck continues to be amazing on guitar. That's the end of the praise.
Gary, who is a drummer, says the new drummer should be fired. I did notice a few failures to synch up. The new keyboard player was very good and could imitate Jan Hammer to a T but was to my mind uninspired. The same old bassist (who changed basses once or twice??) was great again but ironically he sounded better back away from the stage. I can't explain that. I just wish that he had been more jazzy on the jazz fusion songs (I know that's a flip-flop from the Hornsby concert--so sue me) and drew them out rather than rushed through them. The best thing about Brush with the Blues is the timing of the silence juxtaposed with the technical brilliance of the cooking part and then being instantly back to restraint and perfection. You ruin the song to rush it.
Anyway, it was a solid B+ and I'd still see him anytime, anywhere.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 7:39 AM 
