Friday, November 5, 2010

DBT review, Marco Benevento, Soulive, Sufjan Stevens, Robert Earl Keen

Will start by saying last Saturday's Drive-By Truckers show at The National was every bit the rock n' roll extrodinaire show I expected.  Bobby Bare Jr. was a fitting opener, his grungy, witty Southern rock fitting right in with the Truckers crowd.  For a night when a good number of the crowd dressed up (including myself in the classic cow costume, another cow costumed person, panda bears, soccer coaches, gangsters, etc.), Bobby got the crowd laughing with his song "Rock & Roll Halloween":


During the set break, as I waited in line for a beer behind the guy costumed as the soccer coach, a drunk guy began to berate me about how much better the soccer coach costume was than my cow costume (which most other people seem to enjoy).  Just as I was about to say that I didn't realize it was a competition, drunk guy dropped his full beer on my foot, making my Chuck Taylors a little squishy for a while.  However, I was quite happy to know that as drunk guy stumbled embarrasingly away that he had just lost his entire $6 beer.

The Truckers came on dressed as policemen and then opened the show with their new song, "Used To Be A Cop" (see last week's blog for video).  Shonna was the sexiest looking female cop since Niecy Nash & Wendy McLendon-Covey of "Reno 911!", that is if you like your female cops with a few extra donuts in their back pockets, if you know what I mean. 

Highlights of the show were Lookout Mountain, Drag the Lake Charlie, Bulldozers & Dirt (dedicated to Drive-By Truckers artist and Richmond resident Wes Freed), The Righteous Path, Sands of Iwo Jima, (It's Gonna Be) I Told You So, Gravity's Gone (sung by a very tipsy Mike Cooley who is a very happy drunk), Shut Up & Get On the Plane, Hell No I Ain't Happy, and the killer encore of Let There Be Rock, Buttholeville>State Trooper (rrrrrroooockin' of the Springsteen song)>People Who Died (cover of the Jim Carroll song).  Here's the Buttholeville>State Trooper combo from a month earlier in Dallas:


Everyone left sweaty, thrilled, almost deaf (it was loud, but clearly loud) and exhausted after a truly great Saturday night of rock n' roll.  Can't wait until the Truckers come back again.

To give you an idea of how loud it was, when I walked in the door of my home after the show, the alarm will give a cautionary beep for 30 - 45 seconds or so, giving you a chance to turn it off.  I walked in and thought "Oh, my wife didn't turn the alarm on" and proceeded to go about my business.  Only my wife did set the alarm and my ears were so blown out I either couldn't hear the frequency of the beeping or just flat out couldn't hear it.  My wife comes running downstairs wondering why I'm not turning the alarm off and as I'm asking her "What alarm?", the full-on alarm goes off waking up the kids.  I had the alarm off in about 10 seconds as I leapt to the control panel, now full of adrenaline.  I could hear that alarm.  Its freakin' loud.  At least as loud as the Truckers.  Luckily, the kids fell back to sleep rather quickly and I drank a big glass of water (gotta rehydrate) and scarfed down a slice of leftover pizza before stumbling to bed.  So the Truckers were so loud they even woke up my kids.

Onto this week in Richmond.  Saturday night Marco Benevento will be at the Capital Ale House Downtown.  The show will start at 10 PM and tix are $12 in advance, $15 at the door.  Marco plays jazzy jam rock or jammy jazz rock, whichever you prefer.  Anyway you look at it, he's an excellent piano/keys player who is wide open and experimental but can also get you dancing.  Here's one of his more experimental pieces with a pretty cool video too, "Now They're Writing Music":


Leading up to the Benevento show at the Ale House will be Screens & Suds 2010, a rock n' roll poster and beer show that is FREE, though a $5 donation is suggested because it benefits the MS Society and Richmond-area hospice.  That'll kick off at 4 PM.  There will be cool art to look at, a cool dj spinning tunes, and breweries will be on hand with free tastings, drink specials and freebies, and a fund-raising raffle.  The event will run until 9 PM.


Sunday at the Capital Ale House Downtown, Soulive checks in with their soul, jazz, hip-hop, R&B, rock combo thing.  Hell, its just funky music.  Here is what was written on the Ale House site: "Not many bands can say they’ve recorded with Chaka Khan, Dave Matthews, Talib Kweli and John Scofield. Nor can many bands open for The Rolling Stones on one tour and have Stevie Wonder sit in with them on the next tour. The musical relationships the band has developed, from the aforementioned artists to Derek Trucks, Susan Tedeschi, Robert Randolph, Joshua Redman, Kenny Garrett, Fred Wesley, The Roots, Ivan Neville and so many others, speak volumes about both how versatile these talented musicians are. Jazz, hip-hop, rock, soul, funk, R & B, Blues – musically, there is not much the band hasn’t done."  Show starts at 8 with opener Nigel Hall.  Tix are $20 in advance, $23 at the door. 


I'm sure you'll hear some selections from their latest album, "Rubber Soulive", which is their tribute to the Beatles.  Here they are doing "Eleanor Rigby/I Want You (She's So Heavy)":


Tuesday, Sufjan Stevens will be at The National.  Tix are $35.  Doors open at 7 and show starts at 8 with opener DM Stith.  Sufjan made one of my all-time favorite albums, "Illinois" and if you are looking for some new Christmas music for the upcoming holidays, check out his "Songs for Christmas", which has a nice blend of the religious and secular and traditional and orginal music.  Here is Sufjan a few nights ago doing a song from the "Illinois" album called "John Wayne Gacy Jr.":


Wednesday, the Bard of Texas, Robert Earl Keen will be at The National.  Tix are $25.  Doors open at 7, show starts at 8 with opener Reckless Kelly.  I'm a big REK fan and would probably be going to this if it wasn't smack dab in between my Truckers show and the Black Crowes show in two weeks at The National which I'll be going to.  Here you can watch REK on Austin City Limits on the show which just premeired last weekend:

Watch the full episode. See more Austin City Limits.

That's it.  Have a great weekend!

Tony Jordan

No comments:

Post a Comment