Radiohead Live At The Greek Theatre-Berkeley CA 06/24/06
It's official. Radiohead have joined Bruce Springsteen on that short, elite list of artists that I will travel thousands of miles to see if they don't happen to be playing my hometown of Seattle.

Radiohead earned their place on that list this past weekend when I made the trip to Berkeley, California to catch them on the second night of a sold out two night stand at the Greek Theatre.


Now before we get to the concert, a couple of quick things about both the venue, and the city of Berkeley itself.

The Greek Theatre is simply a great place to see a show. It is designed as sort of a miniature Roman Coliseum, perfectly rounded like a bowl so that no matter where you are you have an excellent sight line. The sound is also magnificent, making for an all around great concert experience under a gorgeous moonlit (and foggy!) summer night.

Secondly, props have to be given to the Bay Area's phenomenal transit system, known to the locals as "BART." If you are anything like me, and have more than a few years experience under your belt traveling to foreign cities to see concerts, you already know that getting around can be both challenging and expensive.

Not so in the Bay.

Getting around pretty much anywhere from the Oakland Airport, to the hotel in Berkeley, to the venue on the UC Berkeley campus was never more than a two dollar trainride away. If only every city (including my own here in Seattle) had their transit system down to the science that the Bay Area has.

But back to Radiohead.


If you've followed this band at all over the years, you already know that they never play the same exact setlist twice. But they have never mixed things up quite the way they are doing on this very short American tour this summer. On back to back nights, you might get five of the same songs played at best. Plus, they are trying out a ton of new material. Lead vocalist Thom Yorke has his own solo album, The Eraser coming out in just a few weeks.

But the songs Radiohead are playing are not from that project. Rather, they are from a collective band effort expected to be released sometime next year.

So when I read the setlist online for the first show of the two night Berkeley stand, I was actually disapointed to see several of my favorite songs had already been played.

Unlike some Radiohead fans, I actually prefer the more ambient textures of albums like Kid A and Amnesiac over the guitar driven prog rock of OK Computer. So when I read that friday's setlist included songs like "Morning Bell" and "Pyramid Song," my heart actually sank a little, because I knew it wasn't likely they would be repeated at the Saturday show I was flying a few thousand miles to see.

And I was right. Not only were those songs not played on Saturday--the setlists were so different it might as well have been two different bands altogether. But I'm not complaining. Not at all.

Not only did Radiohead play no less than six brand new songs (one of which, "All I Need", was performed for the only the second time ever), they also dug deep into the most obscure reaches of their catalog. When a Radiohead show opens with "Airbag" and includes "Black Star" in the encores, you know you are witnessing something special.

Even with the one song pretty much guaranteed to be played every night, "Everything In It's Right Place," Radiohead mixed it up with the gorgeous intro into the song of "True Love Waits." In between, we got everything from the jazzy, bass fueled darkness of "Dollars And Cents," to the full on Jonny Greenwood guitar assault of "2 + 2 = 5."

As for the new stuff? Yorke may have joked with the rapturous crowd that the new songs were "sketchy," but he wasn't fooling anybody. If songs like "Arpeggi" and "Down Is The New Up" are any indication, Radiohead's new album is going to be as challenging and groundbreaking as anything they have ever done.

The other thing about this Radiohead tour that is striking is the look. Compared to prior outings (especially the wild lighted pillars of the Hail To The Thief tour three years ago), there is a decidedly more scaled down look this time around with the only noticeable lighting effects being the rectangle shapes (pictured on this page) that double as video screens.

But like that Springsteen guy, Radiohead has taken their place as that rare band that I pretty much will travel anywhere, anytime to see in concert. They really are that great a live band.

If Radiohead play a show anywhere near you, do not miss them.


Setlist:
01 Airbag
02 2+2=5
03 Where I End And You Begin
04 15 Step (New)
05 Kid A
06 Dollars And Cents
07 Down Is The New Up [with long jam at the end] (New)
08 Nude (Unreleased song that's been kicking around for several years)
09 Paranoid Android
10 No Surprises
11 The Gloaming
12 All I Need (New. Second Time ever played)
13 Climbing Up The Walls
14 Go Slowly
15 Myxomatosis
16 Bangers 'N Mash (New)
17 How To Disappear Completely

Encore 1
18 Fake Plastic Trees
19 Arpeggi (New)
20 Black Star
21 True Love Waits
22 Everything In Its Right Place

Encore 2
23 Bodysnatchers
24 The Tourist

Thank God John Fogerty Is Playing These Songs Again...

DVD Review: John Fogerty-The Long Road Home In Concert

I never saw Creedence Clearwater Revival in concert. I saw most of the other great bands and artists from the sixties era--from Hendrix to Joplin to the Jefferson Airplane. But never Creedence.

And for years it appeared I would never be able to hear great songs like "Who'll Stop The Rain?," "Green River," and "Born On The Bayou" in concert because John Fogerty, the man who wrote all those great songs and scores more over a remarkable four year period from 1968-1972, simply refused to perform them.

You see, Fogerty was at the time embroiled in a series of lawsuits, both with his former CCR bandmates, and his former label Fantasy Records, over the rights to those songs.

So when he decided to once again perform them a few years back, nobody was happier than me. I've seen Fogerty perform them live numerous times since then with various backing bands.

The first time was at the Gorge Ampitheatre on the banks of the Columbia River on a gorgeous August night with a band featuring the great Kenny Aronoff on drums. The one-two punch of "Born On The Bayou" and "Green River" which opened that show gave me chills it was so good.

Then in 2004, I got to see Fogerty backed by the great E Street Band on the Vote For Change tour. The version of "Fortunate Son," one of the greatest antiwar anthems ever, played that night was positively explosive.


Then just last year, I heard Fogerty live with his new band on a double bill with another great American songwriter, John Mellencamp. This was the best of them all. Flanked by a couple of other great guitarists, Bob Britt and Billy Burnette, Fogerty was absolutely in his element on this particular night. As underated a guitarist as there is in all of rock music, Fogerty stretched out his swampy cajun funk that night in gloriously extended jams on songs like "Keep On Chooglin."

The concert captured on this great new DVD was recorded just a few nights later at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theatre with the same band. Simply put, this may just be Fogerty's dream band. The man has never sounded better. Not to disrespect his former CCR bandmates, but these songs played by this crack band sound as fresh here as though they were recorded yesterday.

And they are all here. "Proud Mary," "Bad Moon Rising," "Have You Ever Seen The Rain," "Down On The Corner," and the list just goes on and on.

By today's standards, it is truly remarkable that so many of these great songs were released on four albums over the span of a mere eighteen months from 1968-70.

John Fogerty's credentials as one of America's greatest songwriters are beyond dispute. What is truly amazing about this man is the way his songs were so completely embraced by Top Forty radio at the time, and received in the same way by the public as completely innocent pop singles. This despite the anti-war messages of songs like "Who'll Stop The Rain," and "Fortunate Son."

Fogerty's songs were so damn good from a standpoint of craftsmanship, that the deeper messages contained within were simply overlooked.

Outside of "Like A Rolling Stone" perhaps, even Dylan cannot claim that.

What has often been overlooked however is Fogerty's pedigree as a true guitar original. There is simply nobody who captures the deep, dark cajun swamp feel like John Fogerty does. Tony Joe White came close once with "Polk Salad Annie." But Fogerty nails it like nobody else ever has. On this DVD, he stretches this out to the max in extended versions of chestnuts like "Keep On Chooglin," and "Born On the Bayou."

And he clearly has a great time doing it. One of the coolest moments on this DVD comes when he introduces another of those great songs, "Lodi." Referring to rising gas prices, Fogerty recalls the time he was stranded in a California town because of one of those "en-er-jee-sus-crises."

No, I never saw CCR perform live.

But I doubt very much they could have breathed the same life into these timeless songs, that Fogerty does here with the best damn band he's ever played with.

And he's back on Fantasy Records, the very label he had so many problems with. Thank God John Fogerty is playing these timeless, wonderful songs again. And apparently having the time of his life doing so.

Music Industry 101 For Artists:
The Press Kit ...


As a former record company weasel, I still get frequently asked by artists about how to distinguish yourself from the rest of the pack when it comes to getting noticed by record companies. So this is a little Music Industry 101 for anyone out there looking to get signed.


The importance of a good press kit cannot be stressed highly enough for any aspiring artist. I am actually going to take that a step further. Not only do you need a press kit, you need one that is going to stand out.

Understand that record companies, club owners, and the like literally get hundreds of these things a week. I've personally sat in A&R (Artist and Repertoire) meetings at record labels where there were boxes and boxes of tapes to go through. So you already know what's next right? Many of them get thrown out, never to be listened to or checked out.

The first ones to go are usually the sloppily packaged, handwritten ones in a plain envelope with a cheap Wal-Mart tape inside. Next are the more standardly packaged, but bland and ordinary-looking ones.

Here is what an average press kit should contain:

A one-page bio: This is your chance to tell your story to the record company big wigs. Emphasize your sound, your history, accomplishments, CD releases, your website, anything that’s an essential part of who you are as an artist. But unless your name is Dr. Dre or Diddy, keep it to one page. Nobody wants to read War and Peace.

Your Artist Photo: A standard black and white or, better yet, a color glossy photo.

Your Music: A CD (cassette tape won't cut it anymore) that can be full length if it is a commercial release, but should be kept to your four best songs tops, if it's a demo. You will need to have attractive eye-catching cover art if you expect to avoid the trash can as well.

A "Fluff Sheet": This is a second page that you can basically have fun with. Make it humorous, make it interesting, but what you are essentially doing is emphasizing bullet points. Keep it short and sweet.


To get past the trash can, you will again need to package this nicely in a folder. Most of all, you want this to stand out in a box full of hundreds of demos going to an A&R meeting.A personal story that I can relate here happened when I was working at Def American Recordings in the nineties.

This group called Decadent Dub Team (DDT) got everybody's attention there by adding a very colorful T-shirt to their press kit (I still own the shirt today) that said "NO WEAK BEATS" on it. On the front it had a picture of Jimmy Swaggart crying. On the back it showed an artist signing a record contract with the devil. Funny shit.

Their tape not only got listened to, but everybody from the mailroom guy to the head of A&R eventually wore one of those shirts. I also saw several L.A. record executives sporting the shirt around town, too, at places like The Troubadour and The Whisky. I don't think they ever got signed. (They weren't that good, to be honest.)

But their tape did get a fair listen. Why? Because they did something to stand out.

When Sir Mix-A-Lot used to come to my record store back when he was just one of many artists trying to get me to listen to his tapes or write about him in The Rocket...he also did something that stood out.

He made a tape for me where he was talking to me by name in a rap. I know it sounds corny now, but the bottom line is he got my attention then and we know the rest of the story...

Finally, where to send your package:

Record companies (specifically A&R, do a little research and get a name, too); club owners; booking agents; radio programmers and Mix DJs; press (magazines like The Stranger, Spin, and anyone else friendly to your cause... this can and should include local newspapers as well); buyers at retail – specifically independents as well as head buyers at chains like Tower (if they even have a main office anymore); key Internet sites (like Blogcritics, and some of the bigger, better read blogs out there) as well as places like Amazon.

Basically you want anyone and everyone who can help you to know who you are. This is how you do it.

Just remember to keep it real, be true to who you are as an artist, and keep things in perspective.

Incidentally, I do bio work...

Who Wants Rock Opera? Revisiting Tommy and Quadrophenia

The first thing you need to understand about these two DVD performances is that these are not exactly your typical Who concerts.

At least not if your model of a live Who show is based upon the wild, chaotic performances captured on such classics as The Who Live At Leeds, (possibly the greatest live album ever made) or the DVD The Who Live At The Isle of Wight 1970 (which isn't far behind Leeds in terms of capturing one of rock's greatest live bands on a particularly hot night).

Originally released last fall as a double set, and now split into two seperate DVD's, these rather represent semi-theatrical live performances of The Who's two landmark rock operas by what can only described as an expanded touring ensemble.


If you are looking for the windmilling, guitar smashing Pete Townshend here, you'll likely be disapointed. He rarely plays so much as an electric guitar on either of these DVDs. Roger Daltrey's voice is strong throughout much of the Tommy performance, but is all but gone by Quadrophenia.

The good news is, once you get past the fact that you can't really call this a true Who concert (and has there ever really been one since Keith Moon died anyway?), there's still much to like about both DVDs.

The two concerts here, recorded nearly ten years apart, are basically (as I said) touring theatrical presentations of the rock operas Tommy and Quadrophenia. Then surviving Who members Townshend, Daltrey, and bassist John Entwhistle are joined by an expanded band that more resembles a small orchestra, complete with strings, horns and backup singers. There are also a number of big-name guests who turn in guest performances on several of the songs of each opera.


The idea appears to be one of faithfully recreating the two rock operas down to the last french horn onstage. Taken on that level, the concept works for the most part.

Still, it's hard not to miss the power and chaos of a typically frenetic Who concert.

On the Tommy songs in particular, there is a decidedly watered down feel when you have such commonly viewed reference points as Townshend's windmilling Woodstock performance to measure it against. It even takes two drummers to recreate Keith Moon's drum parts on the Tommy disc.

Still, the music is note for note perfect, and a still relatively young Townshend and Daltrey look and sound energized on this performance recorded at Los Angeles Universal Ampitheatre in 1989. There are also some good backup vocal performances from the big-name guests like Elton John, Steve Winwood, and Billy Idol. Patti Labelle in particular is in top diva form during her turn as The Acid Queen, while Phil Collins is hilarious as Uncle Ernie.

For the Quadrophenia show, recorded when the Who toured the opera in 1996-97, there is a more elaborate stage presentation. Combining original film from the Quadrophenia movie with a newly filmed dramatic narrative with a young Alex Langdon playing the central role of Jimmy, the troubled Mod and central character of Quadrophenia, this is by far the better performance of the two. Despite the fact that The Who members are nearly ten years older--and Daltrey's voice is pretty well shot--the band sounds absolutely outstanding here.

John Entwhistle in particular here is just stunning. Of all The Who albums, Quadrophenia has always been the one where Entwhistle's bass parts we're most dominant, and here he just shreds them to pieces.


The 5.1 audio mix of the DVD showcases his mastery of the four string just beautifully, leaving you to ponder how The Who could possibly carry on without him (the same way Who fans still wonder about Keith Moon). Speaking of Moon, it takes only one drummer to take on that task here and Zak Starkey more than rises to the occasion.

The expanded band is also more effective here taking on Quadrophenia's more symphonic musical sweep. Instrumental passages like "The Rock" are as gorgeous and textured as they are on the original record, and Townshend even swings a few windmills during "Love Reign O'er Me." And Entwhistle's bass on tracks like "The Punk Meets The Godfather" is, as I mentioned, just amazing. Billy Idol is back here as "The Ace Face" for "Sea and Sand" and "Bell Boy." PJ Proby does a humorous vocal turn here as well as "The Godfather" of the storyline's Rockers.



Although Roger Daltrey strains noticably hard to hit those high notes, the music is so strong here it more than covers for the vocal flaws. The Quadrophenia story of a troubled Mod growing up in swinging sixties London is also told more coherently here than it has ever been.


Again the key to appreciating either of these DVDs comes by lowering typical expectations. This is not the controlled mayhem most fans associate with The Who in concert. It does however, represent a faithful, well executed stage recreation of two of that band's most enduring works.

The preceding article was named an "Editors Pick" at http://blogcritics.org for the week ending June 21, 2006

Jefferson Airplane Loves You (Hot Tuna Does too)

I first saw the Jefferson Airplane live in 1969 at the Civic Auditorium in Honolulu, Hawaii. I was all of thirteen years old at the time and it was the first time my parents allowed me to go to a rock concert all by myself (my Grandmother had actually accompanied me to the few shows I'd attended prior to that).

If only they knew...

The Civic was a mass of stoned humanity that night. The air was thick with the smell of pot. Hippie chicks danced their way through the crowd, many of them topless (a definite bonus for this particularly horny thirteen year old).

Oh yeah, I was all about the half naked dancing hippie chicks.

But more than that, I was absolutely mesmerized by the wild improvising between guitarist Jorma Kaukonen and especially bassist Jack Casady. On record, the Airplane had always been more about the interplay of it's three vocalists--Kantner, Balin, and Slick. Live however, the vocals, at least on that particular night, took a backseat to the extended jamming of it's two best musicians.

Kaukonen's psychedelic staccato leads cut through the air like glass shards. And Casady? In the nearly forty years and hundreds of bands I've seen since, I've rarely seen a bassist play like that. Casady's thick, juicy runs didn't so much support Kaukonen's guitar, as bass players normally do, as it did run great big rumbling circles around it.

All told there was about six hours of music that night. Two from Jorma and Jack's newly formed side project, Hot Tuna, and four more from the classic Airplane lineup of Grace, Marty, Paul, Jorma, Jack, and drummer Spencer Dryden.

That lineup, and the six albums they recorded from 1966-1969 is the focus of The Worst of Jefferson Airplane, originally released in 1970 and just out in a newly remastered version with three bonus tracks from RCA Legacy.

Before splintering off into the numerous messy Starship combinations--Jeffersonian and otherwise--of the seventies and eighties, the classic Airplane lineup were the standard bearers of the psychedelic music revolution born out of San Francisco in the sixties. What this collection reveals anew is how far that lineup progressed musically in just four short years. Each album represented on this collection spotlights a different side of Jefferson Airplane.

From their debut, Jefferson Airplane Takes Off (with soon to be departed original members Signe Anderson and Skip Spence), comes "It's No Secret" and "Blues From An Airplane." Both tracks reveal glimpses of what the band would soon become, especially Balin's R&B vocals on "It's No Secret". But it wasn't until the release of Surrealistic Pillow with the band completed by Dryden and Slick that their full potential was realized. Slick brought two of her own songs, "White Rabbit," and "Somebody To Love" to that record and they would become the band's only legitimate radio hits. Both are included here.



But by that time, Jefferson Airplane didn't really seem to care about radio at all as the band's output grew more experimental musically and political lyrically. The albums After Bathing At Baxters and Crown of Creation saw the band growing by leaps and bounds, with Kaukonen and Casady in particular flexing their musical muscle. The politics were becoming more overt in songs like Grace Slick's "Lather" (which she famously performed in blackface on "The Smothers Brothers Show"), while the powerful combination of Kaukonen and Casady took the music in a harder direction on tracks like "Greasy Heart" and "Watch Her Ride", here for the first time as bonus tracks.

But it is on a live version of "Plastic Fantastic Lover," from the classic live Airplane album Bless Its Pointed Little Head that the Airplane's power as a live band is best showcased. By the time Casady's bass kicks in following the tracks guitar intro, it shakes the song's very foundation. By it's end, Kaukonen's leads are dancing around and around Casady's equally fast runs up and down the fret board. For his part, Balin also turns in one of his best vocal performances here as well.

1969's Volunteers would ultimately prove to be the swansong for the classic Jefferson Airplane lineup. Not surprisingly, it remains their most fully realized work. The songs here are more political than ever, with both the title track and Kantner's "We Can Be Together" (with it's famous rallying cry of "Up Against the Wall Motherfucker"), serving as charged anthems for the by then wiltering flower power generation. But the bluesy sounds that Casady and Kaukonen would later mine with Hot Tuna are also represented here by Kaukonen's "Good Shepherd," a gorgeous reworking of a traditonal spiritual. Jerry Garcia provides steel backup here.

With Jefferson Airplane already splintering at that point, Jorma and Jack began turning their energies to Hot Tuna, the one time side project that by now had become increasingly a full time proposition.

Keep On Truckin': The Very Best of Hot Tuna, clocking in at about 76 minutes, features songs from eight Hot Tuna albums recorded between 1969 and 1978, all chosen by Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady themselves. Although various musicians have drifted in and out of Hot Tuna over the years, the focus has always been on Kaukonen and Casady. Likewise, the musical emphasis has always been on the blues that both musicians grew up with.

When Kaukonen and Casady perform as a duo, Kaukonen's finger picking acoustic style on tracks like Rev. Gary Davis "Hesitation Blues" and "Death Don't Have No Mercy" (Davis is the primary influence of that style) sharply contrast Casady's thick electric bass runs, which he plays as frenetically as though there was an entire band there. Another Davis cover, "Candy Man" shows up with an expanded electric lineup that includes violinist Papa John Creach and drummer Sammy Piazza. The musicians stretch out the electric format with another blues cover, this one a nine minute version of Lightnin Hopkins' "Come Back Baby."

But it's not all covers here. Jorma Kaukonen writes many of the originals included here including "True Religion," "I See The Light," and the instrumental "Water Song." Later versions of Hot Tuna would include a second guitar, keyboards, and additional vocalists--a far cry from Hot Tuna's acoustic beginings.

But they never stray far from their roots, coming back to blues covers by Muddy Waters ("I Can't Be Satisfied"), Robert Johnson ("Walkin Blues"), and of course Rev. Gary Davis (a live version of "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burning" produced by Felix Pappalardi of Mountain and Cream fame).

Where Jefferson Airplane is now a distant, hazy psychedelic memory, Hot Tuna, now back to the acoustic duo of Kaukonen and Casady continue to play shows to this day. The legacies of both bands are well represented by these two great collections from RCA Legacy.

Personally I'm a little more partial to the psychedelic improvising of the Airplane (what with the memories of topless hippie chicks dancing through arenas filled with pot smoke and all). Plus the Airplane's songs are a lot more solid. But the blues based Hot Tuna offerings are pretty tasty too. Not to mention the fact that they pretty much laid the groundwork for many of today's "jam bands."

So lets call it an easy five stars for Jefferson Airplane. And a strong three and a half for Hot Tuna.