Thursday, September 27, 2007

Review: The Police and Roger Waters in Toronto

Police guitarist Andy Summers has claimed that the 2007 Police regrouping is not a reunion tour.

Seeing the group on July 23rd at Toronto’s Air Canada Centre, it was hard not to agree. I have never experienced three musicians performing together so obviously in their own musical worlds. The fact that they were on the same stage was about all these musicians shared. Well, that and the profits.

Personally, I was hoping for some of the youthful new wave fire that the band demonstrated on their early albums like 1979’s Reggatta de Blanc. Instead the early tunes were de-reggaefied, and the later tunes sounded as if they could have been outtakes from Sting’s bland 1985 solo album Dream of the Blue Turtles.

Familiar tunes like “Roxanne”, “Walking on the Moon” and “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” were reworked into showcases for Sting’s admittedly great voice or Summers’ and Copeland’s chops, just never at the same time. The musicians were so careful enough not to step on each other’s toes that it made for a remarkable safe performance.

The Police of 2007 seem to have little interest in being a rock and roll band. For these three enormous egos to perform acrimoniously, it was obviously necessary to put aside their differences. Too bad that tension was what made the Police’s music interesting in the first place.

Roger Waters at Roger’s Centre on July 14th was an entirely different experience.

From the opening licks of “In the Flesh”, the show was all that Floyd fans could have asked for (besides having the original musicians together on the same stage).

Performing the entire Dark Side of the Moon album without the original players held great potential to disappoint, but the performance didn’t suffer for their absence. The assembled musicians upheld the spirit of the album without trying to follow too closely in their predecessor’s footprints.

Long-time Waters guitarists Snowy White and Andy Fairweather-Low were superb. Earnest Dave Kilminster was competent covering most of Gilmour’s vocals, especially on the Dark Side material, and his playing often echoed Gilmour’s licks within Kilminster’s flashy seventies hard rock style.

Waters himself made the most of his limited vocal range, without pushing past his limitations. This was the last show of the tour, and it showed in the polished performances and the efforts of the performers to leave it all on the stage.

The real star of the evening though, was the state-of-the-art 3600 quadraphonic sound system. It made the performances of songs like “Every Brick in the Wall Pt. III” resonate with all the power of the studio versions. One was tempted to duck when hearing the approaching helicopter effects, and the child choir on the refrain held all the menace and spookiness of the album cut.

These were two distinctly different performances from artists heading in opposite directions. While Roger Waters attempted to look back and re-create the past as faithfully as present circumstances would allow, the Police seemed more intent on transforming their material into mellow, easy listening anthems they assumed reflected their grown-up audience’s current musical tastes. While Waters was able to briefly recapture the magic and immediacy of the past, the Police only made one feel that there was truly no way to get back there again.

Friday, July 13, 2007

Bob Dylan at CasinoRama

Bob Dylan – CasinoRama
July 7,8th 2007

Here are my reflections from last weekend’s Bob Dylan shows at CasinoRama in Orillia, Ontario.

Saturday, July 7th

Bob’s voice was far more expressive than I have heard in years. The band picked up on this and repeatedly dropped low to let the vocals shine. At times they were playing more like a jazz combo than the blues bar band treatment they gave every song at their ACC show last November. Everything was getting the “Modern Times” treatment, and even songs I had heard many times before were interesting again.

I’m not going to say the crowd was old, but the largest cheer of Saturday night came for the lines:

“You think I'm over the hill / You think I'm past my prime / Let me see what you got / We can have a whoppin' time…”


Highlights:

Just Like a Woman: Amazing. When he hit the chorus and the word “Please” in “Please don’t let on/ that you knew me when” his voice had a vulnerability and desperation that I have never heard before.

Tangled up in Blue: Every verse was sung with a different melody, until he hit the last verse and sang it as if he was playing a harmonica solo.

Lowlights:

Blowing in the Wind: A schmaltzy pop arrangement sucked the remaining life force out of this once vital anthem.

Vocal Quality: A
Song Selection: B-
Band: A-


Sunday, July 8th

Maybe it was the back-to-back shows, but the croaky, hoarse voice was back. Disappointing, especially considering my raised expectations after the show the night before. Still, it was nice to see that the set list varied widely from the night before, and at times seeing Bob leaning back while playing guitar evoked footage from the Rolling Thunder Revue.

Highlights:

I Believe in You: where did this come from? It wasn’t Every Grain of Sand, but it would do.

Bob must have been feeling in a religious mood this Sunday. Not only did he play I Believe in You, but I picked up on crucifixion references in two other songs: “She took my crown of thorns” in Shelter from the Storm and “We all wear the same thorny crown” in When the Deal Goes Down.

Lowlights:

Shelter from the Storm: Never mind the fact that I was hoping for Simple Twist of Fate.

I’ve never been a fan of Bob reducing the melody of a song to the same note over and over again, except for the last word of a line, which is sung slightly higher. It’s something like: “Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Do-Fa,” over and over again. I’ve heard him do entire shows with every song like this, and while this wasn't that bad, I was left longing for the beauty of the original version.

Vocal Quality: B
Song Selection: B+
Band: B

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Rock Bottom in NYC

The most surreal moment of my recent trip to N.Y.C. had to be seeing the Rock Bottom Remainders, a "band" consisting of authors Stephen King, Mitch Albom, Amy Tan, Dave Barry and others.

No great musical chops here (Stephen King in particular seemed profoundly uncomfortable on rhythm guitar and pained vocals), but there were the good vibes of a bunch of writers living out their secret rock star fantasies.

The group was joined by Byrds legend Roger McGuinn for a few songs (Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn Turn Turn, Chimes of Freedom and You Ain't Goin Nowhere). Always enjoy hearing that 12 string Rickenbacker and his understated vocals. Even backed up by surely the worst supporting band of his career, he pulled it off beautifully.

Outside the venue, saw Stephen King leaving with friends to hop a cab. Chased after and took a really bad picture with my cell phone camera. King awkwardly loping away, makes eye contact for a moment. I can tell he's thinking: "what the hell are you chasing me for?" Good question. What am I chasing him for? I must have been caught up in the moment.

Also picked up a copy of the new Warren Zevon biography "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead", signed by the author, Warren's ex-wife Crystal Zevon, who was at the show.

Its a hair-raising tale of rock star excess told by those who knew him best. What really comes through is how far he went to sabotage his own success with a truly out of control alcohol problem and a bad attitude. Any more successful and the man would have expired long before he finally succumbed to lung cancer in 2003 at the age of 56.

Zevon was his own worst enemy. Fortunately he was intelligent and funny and honest enough to pull it off. He was full of contradictions, like his music, often veering between brutal cynicism and unexpected sweetness. What a glorious mess. Dirty life and times, indeed.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Rolling Stone's 15 Worst

Rolling Stone magazine has published a list of the 15 top worst albums by undeniably great bands.

You can check out the list here:

http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/05/14/rolling-stones-15-worst-albums-by-great-bands

I guess it is a testament to an artist's longevity that eventually you are going to produce a few lemons. In thinking about whether I agree with the selections I was struck by the relative ease with which I was able to name several other candidates for worst album for almost every example.

Think Down in the Groove is Dylan's worst? I actually liked the album much better than 1986's Knocked Out Loaded.

What about the 1973 contractual obligation album Dylan, featuring unconvincing attempts at covers like "Big Yellow Taxi" and "Mr. Bojangles"? To be fair, the album was never intended for release. I can only assume Rolling Stone was looking to avoid the easiest pickings.

Dylan was Columbia's attempt at revenge for Dylan having left the label for Geffen (only temporarily, as it turned out) by releasing the outtakes from his previous low point: Self Portrait. Either could easily be counted his worst. Beloved critical hero Greil Marcus said it best in the opening of his 1971 review of Self Portrait in Rolling Stone:

"What is this shit?"

Perhaps more disturbing was the ease with which I was able to name several Neil Young albums that I considered far worse than Old Ways, an album I liked at the time and was a refreshing change of direction after the abysmal Landing on Water. The incomprehensible albums Reactor and Trans, produced while Neil was experimenting with new communication methods to reach his sons despite their cerebral palsey, were both noble experiments gone horribly awry.

Again from the contractual obligation department: Lou Reed's Metal Machine Music and Led Zepplin's Coda. Both far worse than the albums Rolling Stone names.

Elvis Costello's Mighty Like a Rose instead of the truly bleak Julliet Letters?

The exercise left me surprised that I could recall so many albums by artist that I esteemed so highly which sucked. Not that it lessens my respect for the artists or the contributions they have made, and I can still easily name far more of their best albums.

Ultimitely it might be easier to take Rolling Stone to task for their selection of "undeniably awesome bands." Morrisey is considered undeniable? Really? And no Bruce Springsteen, Grateful Dead or the Beatles?

What do you have to do to make this list, anyway?

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Uncommon Threads

Welcome to Uncommon Threads, home to my views on the intersecting worlds of music, literature and popular culture.

You will find here a potent stew of criticism, conjecture, opinion, rant, bias, truth, fiction and autobiography. That's right. Uncommon Threads makes no attempt to feign objectivity in order to achieve a tone of moral authority. This is not what is politely referred to in some circles as "mainstream media."

Instead you will bear witness to a blurring of the lines between journalism and memoir, serious musicology and unapologetic opinion. Along the way I will explain why certain artifacts matter to me, and why they should mean something to you too.

Dig in. Respond. Check back. Enjoy.