Half-Truth

On Thursday, Big Head Todd and the Monsters rolled through town. I remember their hey-day when I was in college as they had a couple of minor hits. The band's always been noted in certain circles, especially the jam band scene, though they never struck me as a jam band. I honestly couldn't name a single song of theirs but have never seen a reason to not like their music. They just never entered my music listening taste. Then why would it matter if they were playing the Fillmore on Thursday?
Well, because the Truth & Salvage Co. were opening the show. They've been on a mini-tour of the Pacific Coast, In Idaho, Washington, Oregon and a couple of stops in California. The guys told me that they were rolling through when I last saw them and, being in the first week of school and a sticker of $31.50 plus fees, I was wondering if I would have to miss them for the first time this year. Hmmmmm....
Last week, we connected and I was possibly going to get on the guest list if a significant other was not going to make the show. I needed to remind them a couple of days before the show. I was thrilled. On Tuesday, I made my reminder contact but was given the bad news that "she" would be making the show. Hey, no problem; they'd been so gracious with previous shows and I'd just need to buy a ticket to get in.
That wasn't happening. Nothing on craigslist, eBay or stubhub for cheap. Understandably, my better half reminded me of my fiscal responsibilities as a husband and a father and she told me that I'd have to miss the show, deal with it and grow up. She was right. Damnit.
So, Thursday night, with wonderful weather in the 'Wood, the family had a great dinner and we were outside. All except my oldest, who was watching favorite cartoon clips on Youtube. The only problem was, he wasn't allowed to be watching cartoons as he had done something he wasn't supposed to earlier in the afternoon. I walked into the kitchen where the computer was, stopped the cartoon and minimized the screen. To my dismay, I was looking at my inbox and what did I see? An e-mail from the guys letting me know that the plans had changed, "she" couldn't make it and that I WAS ON THE LIST. That was 7:24 p.m. The show started at 8:00. The Fillmore is in the city, an hour and a half away. Rolling her eyes, my wife consented and I was in the car less than one hundred and eighty seconds later. For the first ten minutes of my drive, I questioned my sanity and nearly turned around several times. When I realized that I could do eighty miles an hour around Antioch, however, that lack of certainty disappeared. Now I was at war with the clock; I was going to be late; the question was: just how much of their set would I catch?
Long story short: no traffic. I shot through the Caldecott Tunnel, over the bridge and into the city. Through the city. Parked. Literally ran to the venue. Hit the window. Booked into the beloved Fillmore, where I had first heard them seven months ago opening for the Black Crowes in what may just be one of the top ten shows I've ever seen.
Thankfully, they were still playing. The venue was about a third full, not bad for any opening act. What was great, though, was that everyone in there was not just casually listening but giving them full-throated cheers and their undivided attention. I bee-lined it straight to the stage just as they began ripping into "Rise Up." Scott was singing at his best, the band was DRIVING the song and when the guitar breaks came, the best band in the history of rock and roll ruled the universe for two eternal minutes. Adam's organ was hot in the mix, Smitty declaring war on his cymbals. The crowd was in a frenzy as Scott and Tim were eye to eye, jamming in harmony, sounding increasingly like the Brothers when Duane and Dickey would do the same thing.
"Rise Up" ended and Joe began thumping into "She Really Does It For Me", a rollicking song that would have been Joe Cocker's biggest single from his second album. Tim cranked the song out and the band pushed this harder than I'd ever heard it, straight into "See Her", giving Scott another chance to tear into his '73 Gibson SG. Four minutes later, the crowd roaring and the band dripping in sweat, the song concluded. The audience's response was so loud that I couldn't hear Walker thank the crowd, Big Head Todd and introduce the band. Smitty walked out in front of the kit and they began "Pure Mountain Angel". Walker as adamant as ever on lead, Scott, Tim and Bill the choir. They made such joyful noise that the audience was dead silent. The song moved through two verses and into the outro and the band received a greater ovation than any other time I'd seen them. I'd driven an hour and five minutes to catch four songs and it was one of the best shows I'd seen this year. Capping it off, a couple of the guys saw me from the stage and yelled out, "didja get in? You were on the list!"
For the next hour or so, we caught up and talked about the tour, Fall plans and whatnot. The postshow was just as great as the mini-set I caught. Stories will stay with me. All the while, Big Head Todd was playing. Their set was fine, though unfamiliar. None of us was going to stay around to catch the complete show; I wanted to get back in time for a night's sleep for work and the guys were rolling out to L.A. in an hour. We parted ways, another amazing story had and another long drive ahead.
I told a couple of colleagues the next morning of my adventure. They told me I was nuts. I think they're right.

Official Grateful Dead Day

At school. Today marked the twentieth anniversary of Dead keyboardist Brent Mydland's passing. He lived in Lafayette and I was always envious of my wife that her town owned a member (and one of my favorites) of the Grateful Dead. Brent brought blues, gospel and a whole lot of fun to the band, succeeding Keith Godchaux, not an easy task. Keith, who performed predominantly on the grand piano, helped focus the band after Pigpen's leaving the band without a decent keyboard player. Brent's harmony vocals and boogying key playing added so much to the band when they needed it. He brought so much.
How amazing did things change when I randomly discovered via google that Brent attended my high school!!! He grew up in a local community and even played in the band with others that I've known. Of course, he was just a teenaged kid and those yearbook pictures could not have shown the future keyboardist but I was floored that I never knew this vitally important story.
We started a new school year today and so, in my rock history class, we celebrated Brent with a video and power point slide show. I joked that the school should be renamed Grateful Dead High except for the redundancy.
Lots of '80s era Dead. Here's to Brent, who passed away too early and should be more appreciated for his contribution to one of the greatest bands in the world.

Big Macca Attack

Last night wasn't a concert, it was a happening. Event. Pilgrimmage. Catharsis. I'd never seen Paul McCartney and always had mixed feelings about doing so; somewhat akin to meeting your heroes, sort of thing. I mean, he's a Beatle; how does one live up to that? I bet he probably burps after dinner and his toilet paper roll goes along the wall, instead of the internationally-agreed upon downward-counter-clockwise,proper way. Having Tripping the Live Fantastic and seen most officially-released concert videos since his re-emergence in 1989, I was familiar with the between-song banter, the expected setlist, the whole thing. And yet, NOTHING prepared me for what happened last night at AT&T/SBC/PacBell Park in the city. Of course, the 40,000 of us piled into the venue and sat in our far away and expensive seats (though we bought the third deck $50 seats that brought us such great luck with Bruce) and even more over-priced food and beverages (didn't imbibe too much; nothing worse than having to pee eighteen times at a show), we hunkered down for a night of hopeful wonder, like children expecting Santa to deliver but not knowing just what would be left under the tree.
In a nutshell: two hours and fifty minutes. Forty-one songs. Enough solo/Wings stuff not to kill it but to make us appreciate the fact that he has made music since 1970 (just how many of us have read ANYTHING ELSE Matthew, Mark, Luke or John wrote? :) ). A crack band with top-rated musicians and soaring, angelic harmonies. And songs that have not just been at the center of popular culture but have formed popular culture for the last half-century. The setlist says it all (songs included on each album):


Venus and Mars/Rock Show - Venus and Mars. Fine opening, completely unfamiliar.
Jet - Band on the Run. Dumb lyrics but cool instrumentation.
All my Loving - With the Beatles. My first Beatles song sung to me by a Beatle. First time I choked up.
Letting Go - Venus and Mars. Still nope, but cool nonetheless. Very '70s sound and I'm down with that.
Got to Get You into My Life - Revolver. We're talking; cool.
Highway - The Fireman: Electric Arguments. Impressed; had heard the story on NPR about this fascinating album.
Let Me Roll It - Band on the Run / Foxy Lady instrumental - Are you Experienced. VERY cool. Paul on lead guitar
The Long and Winding Road - Let it Be. Always torn on this regarding Phil Spector's arrangements, though Paul plowed through it and kept it from being maudlin. Liked.
Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five - Band on the Run
Let'em In - Wings at the Speed of Sound
My Love - Red Rose Speedway. She does it well, not good, but my wife and I enjoyed the love song to his lost Linda.
I'm Looking Through You - Rubber Soul. A fun surprise and cute song.
Two of Us - Let it Be. Totally off-guard and glad. What a great, great song from such a bizzare album. Would the Beatles have been so incredibly popular if they released Let It Be/Get Back earlier in their career? No. Yet the songs are the songs that I wish I was writing now as they're stripped to the essentially important voices of rock and roll.
Blackbird - White Album. Yes.
Here Today - Tug of War. I cry at the drop of a hat regarding John and this instance was no different. Can't believe we're approaching thirty years this December.
Dance Tonight - Memory Almost Full. Liked, though by now, I want nothing beyond 1971
Mrs. Vandebilt - Band on the Run. Unfamiliar with. I'm down, though
San Francisco Bay Blues - very cute. Thanks, Paul, for remembering the fact that the city hadn't seen you since you and that band left us live, August 29, 1966.
Eleanor Rigby - Revolver. I dare anyone else to write a short story or song that delivers like this one in one minute fity-nine seconds. Fortunate Son comes close but not quite.
Something - Abbey Road. Paul started on uke, like his last several outings, as expected and then the band swept up behind him and stole the song into a full-blown arrangement. The second instance of being choked up. Actually no; I cried on this one.
Sing the Changes - The Fireman: Electric Arguments. This record would have sold a ton had it been released in 1977.
Band on the Run - Band on the Run. A weird song with Paul still wanting to remake Abbey Road but with killer hooks. Cool.
Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da - White Album. How do you not fly out of your seat with this one?
Back in the USSR - White Album. We know the story of Paul recording every instrument on this track in 1968. My Fresno band played the hell out of this one. Always a rocker.
I've Got a Feeling - Let it Be. I would have written this one, too. Just like this, though Paul didn't wail like he did on the record. Great jamming between the guitarists.
Paperback Writer - Hey Jude. The bass playing on the studio cut is just about the most phenomenal, light years ahead stuff ever. Paul played guitar while singing but this one shot through the park and I sang at the top of my lungs to this one.
A Day in the Life - Sgt. Pepper's seque to Give Peace a Chance - The John Lennon Collection. I was hoping...though must admit it caught me off guard. To hear Paul sing John was eerie; this is possibly the Beatles greatest four minutes on record and a curio to see Paul move through it so deftly. Loved it and after the cacophonous twenty-measure orchestra rush, I was totally moved by the repeated chant of John's chorus and again choking back tears to hear forty thousand people sing a song that has very little meaning unless those of us who do sing it do mean it. The fact that Paul also included this in the set deserves a hats-off, as John was, at this point in the Beatles' career, moving away from Paul and demonstrating a need to leave his partners. This song is divisive, even today, as we are using war as a means to peace.
Let it Be - Let it Be. The song that has had so much meaning for so long. Since high school, with the album version (not the single, with the weaker guitar solo), so stark, with noted pain but acceptance. I once chastised a pastor who wanted to bloviate about how even non-Christians seek God and His family because of the "mother Mary" reference in the first verse. The guy was never cool with me afterwards but if he couldn't even get his facts straight that Paul's mother was named Mary and that this wasn't a song about Jesus then I didn't need to hear him rant about anything else. We soon left this GOP centered church. Part eulogy, part elegaic acceptance of life, this song contains what cannot be said but understood about life.
Live and Let Die - Wings Greatest. A pyrotechnics display that outdid anything the A's game across the Bay could deliver. This one just freaking rocked.
Hey Jude - Hey Jude. And I thought of my son, wishing he was on my lap as we sang...

1st Encore
Day Tripper - Yesterday and Today. One of the coolest guitar riffs ever and cool to hear Paul sing another John song.
Lady Madonna - Hey Jude. I nearly lept out of my seat with the boogie woogie piano roll this one delivered.
Get Back - Let it Be. At this point, the entire venue was at near fever-pitch. The band wasn't playing oldies nor just delivering the goods; they were taking us to THAT place. What else could follow?

2nd Encore
Yesterday - Help! UK version. Was wondering when this would come. It was my beautiful wife's turn to cry. I simply sang at the top of my lungs.
Helter Skelter - White Album. "Charles Manson stole this from the Beatles and we're stealing it back", Bono once said. Well, my Irish brother, Paul rightfully re-stole this back from you and showed that the Beatles delivered the first true heavy metal song. Not the Kinks, not the Who. My set tenet about the Beatles was that they were not a rock and roll band; they were a pop band who rocked. The band killed this one and could have truly taken this one into a completely different direction had the crowd been younger and under a different influence. This was dark and dangerous and Paul showed that he could have written anything forty-two years ago. Right now, there are bands of teenagers playing songs like Helter Skelter with the same passion but much less talent but no less hungry in the hopes that they, too, can drive people with their music.
Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band Reprise)- Sgt. Pepper's. This was it. I've always wanted to end a show with this.
The End - Abbey Road. And in the end, I found myself caught between sheer joy and tears over the greatest of all lyrics in rock and roll music. Could a group of young musicians really have been this prescient to have left their final mark like this? Really? It's an instance such as this that makes me believe in fate or predestination or purpose, that the Beatles could have made this as their final noise. Paul drove this through and the sound grew and grew and grew until the final chords rang through the city as a prayer to us, the faithful, that, if anything else, our own experiences with music as it has permeated us throughout our lives, can continue to influence the way we act, listen, eat, think and love. The freaking Beatles. Paul McCartney. And yet. His impact on world culture is truly unfathomable. Did I spell that right? And do I care? How many people has he spoken to over the last fifty years with his music? How many others did he tacitly encourage to find their inner poets and musicians, to pick up a guitar and sing? Is there a way to NOT hear the Beatles in every rock and roll song you hear on the radio or record player or iPod today? Where would I, we, be without the Beatles? Of course, if it wasn't going to be the Beatles, it would have been another group but it was the Beatles. George and Ringo and John and Paul. And last night, I was able to experience one of them sharing those songs that have moved history. And life is good. Paul and the Beatles. Enough.

The Coldest Winter...T&S Night Two

As Sam once said, is a summer in the city. Last Thursday night was no exception. Caught a nap before heading out west and feared a train wreck with the Bay Bridge tolls up at $6, but since I left later than I wanted, I missed the 'peak hours' and made it into Oakland (ah, Rockridge), onto the Bridge and into the city in an hour!!! What I didn't realize was that Truth & Salvage wasn't to hit the stage until 10:30 or so and I was in the Castro at 8:00. I had my camera with me and I wanted to snap a shot or two of Harvey Milk's Castro Camera and I drove through the neighborhood, humming with people all along the streets, window shopping, moving to destinations, lazily ambling or head-down-and-hoofing it. I loved being surrounded by the rainbows and the brilliant Castro Theater sign and the countless shops and restaurants. Truly a more vibrant neighborhood than the Haight, though I must claim extreme ignorance on how and where the city lives and breathes. Tons of traffic, so I didn't snap a picture and was disappointed with myself (thankfully, later in the evening, I did find that my camera wasn't charged so no shots were on for the night, anyway). I made it back to the block where the show was and grabbed a bite to eat. I didn't want to walk around by myself once the sun went down for lack of knowing where I was and it being bitingly cold, so I figured I'd grab a drink inside.
Once in, I felt like a mole; century-old, dark-stained wood and dim lighting (EPIC place - would love to catch another show there!), I stumbled downstairs and towards the stage to hear the first of two acoustic but unknown local bands (apologies). Liked what I heard and saw but figured I was cold and only a libation or few would get things going. While Cafe du Nord is home of the Swedish neighborhood (just how many Swedes made it to the City back then, anywho?), being of hearty Irish stock, it was black and tan time. No need lecturing me on being Irish and loving the "black and tan"; do your homework and you'll see that it's all good in its anti-Britness :) Turned from the bar and came across Smitty, the man who got me started in all this T&S mess :) and sat down for nearly an hour. The rest is mine but I probably would have been cool had they not even played.
The band hit the stage at eleven and plowed through a fiery set of fast-tempo'd songs (even for the slow ones). The guys were in good form, the crowd in a good mood. Where the hell were the throngs of people, though, I wondered, as it's a damned shame the room wasn't wall-to-wall with fans. Are people not reading the reviews? Reading this 'blog? :) Hearing them open for the Crowes and Steve Miller and others? WTF?
At any rate, the set:

1. Hail Hail (here we go...)
2. 101 (ahhh, I can smell the salt and eucalyptus)
3. Brothers, Sons & Daughters (GREAT beginning, Smitty crashing the cymbals)
4. Island (though not Middle Island Creek, which I requested)
5. Call Back
6. Rise Up (by now, Scott's ripping on the leads and showing more than on the album)
7. Old Piano
8. Welcome to LA (whatever you wanna find, you'll find...)
9. LGP (sweet Jesus in Heaven, Scott, you burned through this song!)
10. Charm City - one not on the record, though this one better be on the next one!
11. Heart Like a Wheel
12. Giant
13. Jump the Ship
14. She Really Does It For Me
15. See Her
16. Cowboy Song
E: Pure Mountain Angel

(I stole a setlist)

They had a great time. Jack passed around and the solos and choruses showed a band firing on all pistons. Not the album, which was polished and focussed; this night was rip-roaring, like that night was all there was going to be for T&S. Nothing to prove to anyone but everything to take from all of us. Let's put it this way: the place roared seventeen times and the greatest disappointment was hearing the guys rip into the Thin Lizzy cover as I knew the show was wrapping up. One hell of a show. Post-show is also mine. Thanks especially to Bill, Tim, Scott and Adam for some great conversation. While T&S are opening up for Big Head Todd & the Monsters later this month, it'll be during my first week back at school and tough all around to make. I don't know if I'll make the show and with that, when I'll be able to catch them again. It may be a long time, which I'm not looking forward to. Either way, it's your responsibility to check them out. Godspeed, guys, I wish you all the best. You've been just the best these last six months.

I hit home at 2:30. The next morning was tough as the kids were hitting the ceiling early but it was all good. "Daddy, did you go to a concert?" Did I ever...

Let's wrap this up: go buy Truth & Salvage Co.'s album. It'll be the best $15 you've spent on music this year. Or any. Check out the website. Support these guys. They're worth it.

One Great Setlist

It's now a month old, but my friend, Steve, gave me a copy of the record release party show on DVD!!! Here's T&S in Asheville, NC the night their record came out:

Setlist
01. Hail Hail
02. 101
03. Heart Like A Wheel
04. Welcome To L.A.
05. Call Back
06. Rise Up
07. Old Piano
08. Brothers, Sons & Daughters
09. Charm City
10. Island
11. LGP
12. Our Love
13. Giant
14. The Shape I'm In (The Band)
15. Jump The Ship
16. She Really Does It For Me
17. See Her
18. Alligator
19. Cowboy
20. Pure Mountain Angel


Quick review of last night: The Mountain Winery was a stunning venue, though the sound was a tad quiet. The audience, at least our portion of it, was a complete downer, with people yelling at me halfway through the first song to sit down during the Crowes. The Crowes were not good at all and the guys appeared to be out of sorts. T&S owned the place; they had great audience support from those who were in the seats and not milling around. Eleven songs (the album minus Brothers, Sons and Daughters). Great energy. Met the guys after the set. Steve had his album cover signed. About twenty minutes or so of personal chit chat - very special time. Tonight, the city and Cafe du Nord. Hope the boys play something close to this above-mentioned set, along with Middle Island Creek. Post tomorrow.