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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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TRIPLE REVIEW BONUS EXTRA! |
| Well
with life being what it is I’ve been away
from my desk for a little while, in the course of
which a few reviews have been waiting to be written.
And as a number of hefty gigs are looming it seemed
the best way out of this problem, without doing
a disservice to the artistes involved, was to write
three (thankfully no doubt for some) abbreviated
pieces. So here they are. |
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| PAT
METHENY AND BRAD MEHLDAU The
Barbican, London, July 2nd 2007 |
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| It’s
just a shame that we went to see Pat
Metheny and Brad
Mehldau so soon after Chick Corea and
Gary Burton. The latter robbed me of my sparse vocabulary
of jazz descriptors and superlatives, and to re-use
them again so soon would be a disservice both to
you, dear reader, and to my limited literary talent.
Metheny of course has been around for years –
coincidentally starting his career in Gary Burton’s
band – at 37 (almost to the day) Mehldau is
a relative whipper-snapper. However this equally
ill-matched couple – think of Garth from Wayne’s
World meets British snooker ace Steve Davies –
play together as if joined at the hip (more than
ably supported for some of the set by Mehldau sidekicks
Larry Grenadier on bass and Jorge Rossy on drums).
Metheny as one would expect is more forward and
perhaps obvious, Mehldau’s keyboards restrained
and subdued yet complex beyond belief. The result
is entrancing. Well almost. Metheny plays in the
classic jazz guitar style with a very full-fat and
rich plectrum driven tone from his big semi-acoustic
Epiphone (I think), and a lot of finger board carry-over.
He occasionally plays (quite beautifully) an acoustic,
and also a Roland G-303 synth guitar (which sounds
like a trumpet) – but the Barney Kessel sound
predominated, and to be honest became just slightly
tedious. Having said that the appearance of his
frankly absurd Ibanez Pikasso – a sort of
cross between a guitar and several zithers, with
its five sets of strings – would lead me to
forgive him almost anything. What I couldn’t
forgive was the overbearing steward who jumped on
The Photographer as she fired off her first shot,
muttering “You can’t do that, it’s
copyright”. So I’m off to consult my
best friends the Intellectual Property lawyers on
that moot point. |
| STEELY
DAN The
Hammersmith Apollo, London, July 7th 2007 |
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| I’d
come a long way for this gig. Over thirteen hours
on a jet plane to be precise, into a bomb-scared
Heathrow. Home, shower, sharpener and straight out
into our plush balcony seats for a Steely
Dan spectacular, or as the outrageously
expensive programme put it, “The Heavy Rollers
Tour”. If I were to say, “Maybe I was
a bit too tired …” then you might imagine
what’s going to come next. So I’ll restrain
myself and say first that much of the musicianship
from this twelve-piece outfit was just outstanding.
And if Walter
Becker had a few dodgy moments on guitar then
these were more than made up for by guitarist and
band leader John
Herrington. Nor were there many duff songs –
why Becker chose to sing ‘Hawaiian divorce’
in the way he did we’ll never know, and though
nice it was an unnessecary gesture to give ‘Dirty
work’ to the backing vocalists, sort of throwing
the song away really. What did surprise me was that
there were only two songs from the Dansters’
first two albums. You see for me these were works
of real genius, after which it all got a bit too
clever, too slick and just like a well-practiced
production line. |
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Whilst
I know the parallel might shock Dan fans, it is
a bit like (as the Photographer suggested) 10CC,
who after two and a half brilliantly accomplished
and funny albums lost sight of the joke and started
to take themselves too seriously. And boy these
guys are so serious they’re sanitised. And
though the set is presented as an American soul
review, it’s actually a totally soulless affair
with the band remaining as far to the back of the
huge Hammersmith stage as they possible can. Audience
engagement: nil. Try as I might I could only see
cynicism in place of sincerity, and a granular image
of Fagen and Becker counting the night’s quids
in the back of a stretch-limo on their way to the
next gig. |
THE
GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN
The
Tower of London, London, July 9th, 2007 |
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In
case you didn’t know, or so my daughter tells
me, Damon
Albarn is a bit of a prodigy. He’s certainly
all over the place at the moment, with the hugely
successful cartoon band Gorillaz, a new opera, Monkey,
a Journey to the West, and his latest project, the
Good, the Bad and the Queen. The eponymous
album has been something of a surprise hit (Gold
within a week), and on the road the band have been
receiving increasingly positive reviews. |
| I
hope they’re good – we’re at the
Tower of London (which features on the album cover)
and it is, as befits an English July evening, pissing
it down, cats, dogs, kitchen sinks and the lot.
It’s cold too. So we take shelter by the forbidding
walls of the Tower and eventually take our (flooded)
seats just before the band take the stage. They
are an accomplished lot – ex Verve and sometime
Gorillaz guitarist Simon Tong, drum virtuoso Tony
Allen and ex Clash bassist Paul Simonon (who, by
the way, is responsible for the excellent drawings
that come in the album’s wonderful little
booklet). The songs are sinister, pessimistic (count
the references to war) and largely melancholic London
streetscapes and vignettes: some of it feels like
a guided tour of Holloway, Islington and Camden
Town. But it’s compelling and engaging, the
band supported by a hauntingly powerful choir and
at one stage David Coulter and his saw (on ‘Behind
the sun’). |
| The
sound is defined by Albarn’s distinctive singing,
Tong’s pedal driven guitar, Allen’s
surprisingly delicate drumming and most of all Simonon’s
deep pounding reggae-fuelled bass playing. In fact
he’s the star of the show – he’s
rarely more than a foot away from Albarn and with
his menacing swagger and perpetual posing he confirms
that this is something from London’s darker
side. It was certainly enough to scare the rain
away and keep the cold from biting too deep. And
I, I have to say, sat in these incongruous and damp
surroundings simply engrossed by what I heard. Highly
recommended. - Nick Morgan (photographs by Kate) |
Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon
(GBQ website forum) |
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the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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