Wild At Heart
Had a good musical week for a change. I started off the week with blues-rock band Hot Tuna which was formed by bassist Jack Casady and guitarist Jorma Kaukonen as a spin-off of Jefferson Airplane. They are currently touring an acoustic set of original and traditional blues songs. They did a three hour performance touching on material from their long history and maintained a fun banter with the audience at the same time.
I then went back to my high school years and caught Van Halen and Kool and the Gang in Buffalo in what is one of the nicest sports arena I have ever been it. The Buffalo Sabers used to play in an arena where you felt like a mountain goat watching a game. They now have a nice glass dome entrance and a colorful concessions area with one nice section up front loaded with old jerseys and Sabers memorabilia. The seating was a vast improvement with padded seats with a clear line of site no matter where you sit. I remember some seats in the old arena that had TV’s hanging up so you could actually see the game. I forgot my camera so no pictures but I’ll take it next time for sure. If the Red Wings ever get going on building them a new arena, they should look at Buffalo as an example of how to do it right.
The show itself was fun though a weird pairing. I noticed that while the Van Halen merch tables were packed, almost no one was at the Kool and the Gang tables. They can out doing a lot of their earlier, more funk oriented music like “Jungle Boogie” which I have been singing this whole weekend and leading up to their biggest song “Celebration” I think I liked their part of the show better musically and was happy they avoided their ballads like “Cherish”, “Misled” and Joanna” which were all big radio hits in the mid-80’s.
Halen started the show with the Kink’s cover “You Really Got Me” and “Running With The Devil”. This led to songs like Roy Orbison’s “(Oh) Pretty Woman”, “Ice Cream Man”, “Dance The Night Away”, “Hot For Teacher”, “Panama” and concluding with “Jump” which had the whole place jumping. I’m not sure what the issue was, but I must admit Eddie’s guitar, while strong, has slowed a bit since his surgery and Roth’s vocals are a little worse for wear, but the one thing Van Halen brings to the table to offset this is Roth’s showmanship. Watching this 56 year old guy jump around stage, twirling mike stands and doing high kicks while talking about his dogs (he had some video of his dogs which he takes to these events where they compete in herding sheep or cattle) or whatever comes to mind is what makes the band exciting. Despite a drop off of skill, the guy still knows how to work an audience and personality can make up for a lot of defects.
On a smaller note, I went to a CD release party for a local girl here from Lyons, NY. She is the 17 year old Amber Stowell who played on the House Of Guitars stage. I was not blown away and though some of her originals were just OK. However a few songs did stick out and I thought I would let my readers judge for themselves if they like her. She just released her 2nd CD and while not overwhelmed by her music, she does have a hint of some strong vocals that come through every now and then which makes me believe with the right material she could get a bigger audience somewhere down the road.
While I am looking for some stuff to go to this week, here are a few shows around Detroit that might be worth checking out:
Tuesday (3/13) - Reverend Horton Heat @ Machine Shop
Thursday (3/15) - Richie Hawtin @ TV Lounge
Friday (3/16) - Mindless Self Indulgence @ Fillmore Theatre
Saturday (3/17) - Motor City Blues Festival featuring Bobby "Blue" Bland @ Detroit Opera House, Kenny Rogers @ Caesar's Windsor
Monday (3/19) - Joe Pug opens for Levon Helm Band @ Michigan Theatre
I will leave you this week with a video comic by the great Jean Henri Gaston Giraud, better known as Moebius. He is a French comic book artist known for his amazingly surreal and imaginative works. His “Blueberry” series is a wonderfully written anti-hero western though he is also highly praised for his sci-fi and fantasy work most frequently seen on these shores on the pages of Heavy Metal. He did design work for the movies Alien, Willow and the original Tron. He is one of the most influential graphic artists on the worldwide scene which is why it is a shame he passed away this past Saturday. Enjoy the work below and I highly recommend checking out his amazing work wherever you can find it.