The Blogg

When Less Than Jake came to town last month, I foolishly allowed the show to sell out before I got a ticket. I was pretty upset at the time, but discovered that they would be returning to the area for the last show of the tour at Tink’s Entertainment Complex in Scranton last night. I wasn’t sure I wanted to make the trip until that day, so I amazingly failed to buy a ticket in advance again. Fortunately, a venue representative assured me by telephone that tickets would be available at the door.

When I arrived, I was pleased to find that the door prices were the same as the advance price ($20) and without the absurd $7 Ticketmaster tax. The club is in what appears to be downtown Scranton, near the courthouse, university, and other important-looking buildings. The inside is setup with a very small bandstand at the front of the building with a mostly open floor behind it (the general-admission section). The 21-plus area was upstairs, which had a balcony wrapping around the lower floor and a larger area with bars in the back. It seems like a reasonable design for providing a good view to the maximum number of people. There were at least 500 people in the place (my own completely unscientific estimate) and I don’t know how you could have fit many more. Most of the place was at least 100 degrees Fahrenheit (again, my estimate) but I was fortunate enough to find a well-ventilated area along the front of the balcony on the far side from the entrance, where the climate was quite pleasant.

The first act, Against All Authority, started at 6:15 and played a 30-minute set. They are a 4-piece (drums, bass/vocals, guitar, trumpet) punk band with which I was unfamiliar. I wasn’t really into their music, although one song sounded extremely similar to a great Rancid tune. It didn’t help that the guitar and trumpet were barely audible.

Next up was Streetlight Manifesto, who I had not previously heard either. A bit of research reveals that it contains many former members of Catch 22, which explained the cover of Keasbey Nights. This was a large ska-influenced punk band, containing drums, bass, guitar/vocals, trombone, bari sax, tenor sax, and trumpet, with all of the winds providing BGVs at points. They played from 7:15 until 8:00. I’m not a big fan of their style, which contains virtually no ska rhythms, but they put on a good show. The trombonist wore a Dunder-Mifflin T-shirt to the concert, which was pretty sweet.

The third act was the one I came to see, Less Than Jake. They came on at 8:30 and played until just after 9:30, including a 4-song encore. I was concerned that the show would mostly feature songs from their latest album, which I consider just “ok” compared to their older material. My fears were relieved when the 5-piece ska/punk band (drums, bass/vocals, guitar/vocals, tenor saxophone, trombone) took the stage and played their first four songs, three of which are among my very favorites (“Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts”, “History Of A Boring Town”, and “All My Best Friends Are Metalheads”). After several more songs the band explained the strange props and guitarist’s leisure suit by declaring a “The Price Is Right” theme to the concert, in which selected audience members would play “The Price Is Right”-style games to pseudorandomly select which of their 6 full-length albums they would play songs from. I was a bit disappointed that the two albums selected were the ones they most recently released, but that music is still great. They did 4-5 selections from each of those albums, then finished with another few pre-selected songs. The sound and energy of the band was incredible. They do the best job of any band I’ve heard in any genre of effectively using two lead vocalists. I could have done without the game show shtick, but having a majority of the setlist selected during the concert is very cool. Knowing this, I probably would have come up to this show even if I had made the earlier Allentown one.

The concert headliner was Reel Big Fish (drums, bass, guitar/vocals, trombone, trumpet/vocals, trumpet), which I found quite surprising. Apparently the crowd agreed with me, because there was much less singing and crowd-surfing during their show. (Did I mention people were jumping off the balcony into the pit below? I couldn’t believe the bouncers didn’t end it as a major liability concern.) I suspect it was because they are more well-known (if derided) in the mainstream. I’ve never been much of a fan, but they put on a good, polished show. I recognized about half of the material from their first two albums. Annoyingly, they spent a good 15 minutes of their 1:15 show playing the same snippet of a song in a dozen different musical styles.

For the money, it was a great experience. I would definitely go back to Tink’s in spite of the 1:20 drive to get there and I’m definitely hoping to see LTJ again. Thankfully I escaped the area without being accosted by any Lackawanna County Volunteer Sheriff’s Deputies.

I almost stayed home today, but decided to go to one concert, and thank goodness for that. Rod Piazza & The Mighty Flyers, a boogie blues band, played an 8:30 – 9:50 and a 10:05 – 11:00 set, both to a packed Americaplatz. I spent the first 15 minutes of the show trying to figure out where the bassist was (I didn’t have a very good view of half the stage) before I realized it was the keyboard player’s left hand. I knew synthesizer technology was getting better all the time, but I hadn’t realized one could so accurately reproduce the attack and other sonic characteristics of a bass.

The band was simply fantastic. The keyboard player was remarkable even without considering that she was effectively only using her right hand, although her bass lines were quite vanilla. The gimmick of playing with her feet was just icing. Both sets included a 15-minute duet between her and the drummer. Sure, it was excessive, but I and the crowd loved every minute of it. Because of her comping, the guitarist was able to do some pretty interesting things while playing rhythm, hardly ever resorting to strummed chords. Like B. B. King, his leads didn’t show off much technical proficiency, but you could tell he could play. Listening to his solos almost made me want to cry. If a major purpose of the blues is catharsis, this guy can give it to you in spades. Rod himself was a great vocalist and, while perhaps not the greatest harmonica player I’ve ever heard, certainly the best at the festival. I don’t usually comment about drummers because I don’t consider myself competent to review them, but I really liked this guy as well. Furthermore, the individual members worked exceptionally well together. By far the best show of the festival.

Tonight was the concert I’d most been looking forward to: Joe Walsh with J. D. & The Straight Shot opening. Gates were supposed to open at 6:00, and my father and I were in line at 5:45 to get the best of the cheap seats. Inexplicably, the gates did not actually open until 6:30. The opening act, which was supposed to take the stage at 7:00, got started around 7:15 and played until 8:00. I can’t say much about their performance, as I was mostly concentrating on ways to stay warm in the shocking 58 degree, windy weather.

Joe and his band (two drummers, bass, guitar, keyboards, 3 BGVs) came on at 8:35 and played until not quite 10:00. Joe’s voice has never been good in any classical sense, but is quite distinctive and doesn’t seem to have changed much. His playing is still top-notch as well, although the soundman didn’t do it justice. Don’t get me wrong, I like my guitars loud and distorted, but for much of this show Joe’s guitar was overloaded to the point of making it difficult to distinguish individual notes. I don’t know whether the problem was at his amplifier or the main mixing board, but thankfully it only affected his rhythm playing and seemed to get better as the evening went on. Even when this was not occurring, his guitar and vocals were mixed so high that they nearly overpowered the rest of the band. Thus, I enjoyed the show, but not as much as I had anticipated. The real treat of the night came after the “Rocky Mountain Way” encore when Joe exclaimed “we don’t usually do this, you’re getting a real treat” and started a rousing rendition of “Life In The Fast Lane”. In addition to being the strongest track of the whole set, it really was an unusual treat; my sources tell me it wasn’t played either of the previous two shows. Final thoughts: Joe Walsh solo is good, but not nearly as good as Joe Walsh with The Eagles, whom I hope to see one day.

I was late again today, this time for The Mayor & His Cabinet, featuring current Lehigh County Executive (and former Bethlehem mayor) Don Cunningham. The 5-piece band (drums, bass, keyboards/vocals, guitar, guitar/vocals) played covers of classic rock songs by bands such as John “Cougar” Mellencamp and The Rolling Stones. Apparently they are a band that formed while the members were high school students and has been together for the last 20 years or so, playing shows when they can make time between their day jobs: just the sort of organization I would love to be a part of. I got to see a long show despite my tardiness because the next band on the bill was caught in traffic. They did an ok job of it, but really no better than most other cover bands.

Next up was Bang Camaro, which I mistakenly thought was a group of people playing music on nontraditional instruments, such as automobile parts. While I had been looking forward to that, the band that actually showed up was not a disappointment. The first sight of the band was a guy warming up on a Flying V. Whenever you see one of those, you know you are in for something either really great or really cheesy (and often both simultaneously). Then I saw two more guitarists, one with an SG and the other playing an Explorer, and just knew this band was going to rock. As if that wasn’t enough, their bassist comes out with the instrument I will someday own when I have more money than I know what to do with: a remake of the classic Rickenbacker 4001 bass. Joining these 4 was a drummer and not one, not two, but twelve vocalists. I couldn’t make out much of the lyrics, but I don’t think that was the point. They played an hour-long set of glammy speed metal with true “gang choruses” and lots of guitar leads. None of the instrumentalists were exceptional, but all were pretty good, and the emphasis on solos (and doubled or even tripled solo-esque unison parts) were just my style. I imagine most of the Musikfest crowd was annoyed, but I loved it.

Closing the night out was Blues Brotherhood, the only band at the festival that I had seen before (at Musikfest ‘05). As you might guess from their name, the band is a tribute to The Blues Brothers. The rhythm section started out with “Green Onions”, but “Jake” and “Elwood” came in on the traditional “Can’t Turn You Loose”. The band’s “Jake” and “Elwood” had the look and the choreography down, and “Jake” was a pretty good vocalist as well. “Elwood’s” harmonica playing left something to be desired, however. The backing band was good, although obviously not as talented as the original supergroup of Cropper, Dunn, Marini, etc. The band played through soul, funk, and even some actual blues tunes. The 2-hour show was a bit uneven, with the material that was featured in the movie working much better than some of the other songs they added. Definitely worth seeing, but I think they are better in a shorter set.

After a 2-day hiatus I returned to Musikfest to see the Sarah Ayers Band at Americaplatz from 5:30 – 6:30, although I arrived a bit late. This is a local blues band that I hadn’t had the privilege of seeing before. Sarah (vocals) is a strong blues singer, and I liked most of her material as well. I typically don’t enjoy female vocals on hard-edged music, but I did like her. As might be expected for a group led by and named for a vocalist, her band (drums, bass, guitar, keyboard) was fairly nondescript but capable. They turned out a good set of simple, laid-back electric blues. Given another free opportunity, I wouldn’t mind seeing them again.

Next up was Watermelon Slim & The Workers, a blues band out of Oklahoma. They had come highly recommended by my uncle’s blues aficionado friends, but I was a bit disappointed. Slim himself (vocals, harmonica, lap steel guitar) was a pretty good harpist and steel player, but I didn’t think he was exceptional at either one. I also didn’t really dig his vocal style. The Workers (drums, bass, guitar) were similarly unimpressive. On most songs the bassist seemed content to monotonously pound out the root of the chord, like a bad punk musician. With the guitarist it was strictly rhythm — he didn’t want to make it cry or sing. That’s not strictly true, but he didn’t get many opportunities. I’m not sorry I saw the concert, but I’m in no hurry to see them again.

My final stop of the night was Jim Weider’s Project Percolator at Liederplatz, from 9:00 – 11:45. When I saw a standard rock quartet instrumentation take the stage for what was billed as a jazz show, I became excited. Perhaps this would be what I had been looking for for a long time: a band with serious jazz chops but heavy metal stylings burning through the likes of “Giant Steps” and “Take The ‘A’ Train”. Sadly, this was not the case. Rather, I was extremely disappointed when the music started with a drum machine supplementing the drummer. What was played on top of this could be called modal jazz, I suppose; it was certainly improvisational music played over very simple chord progressions. The musicians were talented, which made this interesting, but not enough so to prevent me from leaving after about 45 minutes.

Today I went to a ticketed show, Al Green and B. B. King. My first thought was that Riverplace is really a terrible concert venue. The lawn seats are far from stage (expected, but a shock after the intimate free ‘fest stages), lawn “seats” don’t actually provide seating other than the sparse grass, railroad trains are coming through every half hour blowing their horns, etc. They had tele-screens, but didn’t bother trying to use them until darkness fell, so there was little chance of actually seeing Al Green.

Al and his band started playing promptly at 7:00 and continued until 8:00. Mr. Green’s voice was in top form, and his large backing band was tight but restrained. I’m not terribly familiar with his work or the soul genre, but I think I’m glad Etta James had to cancel, opening the way for him to be the opening act.

The B. B. King Blues Band took the stage at 8:45 and, as is customary, played a few tunes before B. B. himself joined them on stage. The entire set lasted until 10:10 through a constant drizzle (nothing like the deluge at my most recent non-Musikfest concert, Kansas at Cooper River Park). This show was the polar opposite of Eric Steckel’s performance the night before: lots of soul and just a bit of flash. That isn’t to say B. B. can’t still make Lucille sing, on the contrary. But here every note seemed carefully selected and savored. B. B. played somewhat sparingly, mostly adding solos in between his vocal choruses. I don’t know what is more amazing at his age (81): that he can still play so well (must be that new diabetes treatment that doesn’t require finger-pricking), that his voice is still so strong, or that he can actually hear his band. He also spent a significant portion of the show talking to the audience and frequently apologizing for it, but I found his tales of growing up in segregated Mississippi and wisdom on life and love fascinating. A legend indeed.

My second day at the ‘fest started at 4:00 at Liederplatz, where The Arrogant Worms were playing. This group came highly recommended to me, and the trio of comedic minstrels did not disappoint. Their quirky folk songs covered such diverse topics as the merits of Canada (their homeland), the nobility of cows, and a day in the life of a shopping mall security guard. The songs were funny enough in themselves, but the banter between songs added quite a lot. Also, the music was actually good, if you like three-part harmony over an acoustic guitar. I was concerned that the vocals wouldn’t be clear enough to make out the words, as is often the case in live music, but everything was quite crisp. The band even did an excellent job of “regionalizing” their music. At one point in a song lamenting the cost of a replacement automobile part, they added a lyric about how many tickets that would require (referencing the food tickets festival-goers must exchange their money for before visiting concessions). At another point they managed to work in a story about how one of the founders of Bethlehem invented bowling by rolling a pig at a founder of Easton, resulting in the first scrapple (a semi-local meat product). I’d like to hear more of them, but I fear their act would lose much in translation from live show to studio recording.

After this, I headed over to the Festplatz to see the Tony Gairo – Gary Rissmiller Jazz Orchestra, a full big-band consisting of mostly faculty members from Moravian College. The band played mostly original compositions and a few obscure standards, which the obnoxious leader frequently reminded us of. This was a welcome departure from the tired rehashing of “In The Mood” and “Tuxedo Junction” I had expected. The compositions weren’t particularly memorable, but most of the soloists were quite good. Balance was good, although trumpet soloists were way too loud and an annoying 60-cycle hum joined in at times. I had intended to stay for only an hour before leaving to catch the beginning of another band, but I was enjoying myself so much that I stayed for nearly the entire thing. Now I really want to look up my old jazz professor.

I arrived for only the second half of Burr Johnson at Banana Island, and I was immediately disappointed that I hadn’t arrived earlier for this power trio. Most of what I wrote yesterday about The Insidious Rays applies here as well: weird synth effects on the guitar; long, complicated songs with little or no vocals; and great musicianship. Again, fantastic music that I would suspect has very little chance of commercial success. Actually, it was much like other vehicles for virtuosos like Joe Satriani, but with as much emphasis on funk and jazz as heavy metal. I hope to hear them again as well.

Finally I returned to Liederplatz to hear The Eric Steckel Band, a blues-rock quartet fronted by a guy who looked about 14 years old. Recalling Jonny Lang, his voice and guitar-playing sounded like a man at least twice his age. The band played two long sets of an even mix of originals and covers by both contemporaries such as Tommy Castro and classics like Freddie King (and the obligatory Voodoo Chile, of course). The band was hot, but the keyboards were unfortunately buried in the mix except during his solos. The music was understandably more flash than soul, but very entertaining at that. Really, the only thing that detracted from the performance was Eric saying “Oh yeah” after every single song.

Musikfest is a 10-day music festival in Bethlehem, PA, where I reside, with mostly free concerts. I didn’t get a chance to attend at all last year, so I’m doing my best to take advantage of it this year. I’ll be posting a concert review at the end of each day.

First up was Even Further, a local ska/punk band. Due (apparently) to traffic, their set started 15 minutes late, and then lasted only a bit over 35 minutes before they were required to vacate the stage. The band is a 5-piece (drums, bass, guitar/vocals, tenor saxophone, trombone). Sound at the show was ok, but it was difficult to hear the horns at times.

This particular mix of ska and punk was extremely reminiscent of early Less Than Jake, but many songs had a section that was fairly authentic reggae, which served to keep it from sounding derivative. They had a good set of catchy tunes, all of which were either originals or very obscure covers. The bass playing was fairly standard for this genre, interesting but with the potential for more. The guitarist very rarely strayed from the almighty major barre chord, but he sounded great. The horn lines succeeded in not being corny, which is often a problem. At times the band took advantage of having 4 capable vocalists, but I would have liked to hear more of it. The band also had pretty good showmanship, especially since there was virtually no energy in the crowd to feed off of. Overall the band was as polished as, and honestly in some ways better than, most of their peers with major-label record deals. They were the winner of last year’s regional band showcase, and I can see why in spite of the great decline in ska interest since the late ’90s revival. I hope to get an opportunity to hear them again.

Next up at Americaplatz was The Insidious Rays, with a standard rock quartet lineup. When they started playing, I was somewhat put-off by the layers of synth-y effects on the guitars. It wasn’t long before I changed my mind, however, when the two guitarists started playing harmonized leads. This was some crazy music, not categorizable to any genre I am familiar with, so I’ll just go with the “funk/surf/rock” description Musikfest gave them. The longer I listened, the more I enjoyed the show. It was the kind of fabulous music that would have no chance of radio viability: long songs with few vocals, no cookie-cutter structure, and extended jams. I’m quite disappointed to find out that the band is breaking up after one more show. If it didn’t conflict with Joe Walsh, I would go see their last show next week.

My final band of the night was Philadelphia Funk Authority, a 9-piece (drums/vocals, percussion, bass, guitar, keyboards, trombone/vocals, trumpet, tenor saxophone/flute, vocals). They played mostly covers from the usual suspects of funk bands (James Brown, Earth Wind & Fire, Tower Of Power), oldies, and disco, as well as a few originals. They were quite faithful to the original arrangements, unfortunately; I would have liked to hear them really stretch out at times. The band seemed quite competent (although the horn players seemed to have trouble keeping up during EW&F’s “September”), but there was nothing to distinguish them in my mind from the hundreds of bands with similar repertoires and talent playing weddings and private parties around the world. Thus, a great evening but nothing to get excited about.