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Spiritual Machines -- album presentation

Fifth time is a charm! I have caught OLP 4 times prior to last night including a small acoustic set at a local radio station. With the exception of the acoustic set I have been less than impressed with their live sound. Last night was much, much different!

I have good rock & roll luck and as it would have it last night I ran into a guy selling a front row centre pair way below cost, nice! It was meant to be as I had tried earlier to get into the Mod Club for the Sirius Radio Song writers show featuring Joel Plaskett, Jeff Martin, Default and The Trews. When this wasn’t working out I went over to Massey for the OLP’s presentation of Spiritual Machines.

Man I forgot how good this album is. OLP’s concept album has some really nice stuff here. From the start Right Behind You sounds so good! It isn’t hard to tell the band doesn’t play many nights that feature albums in their entirety. Raine Maida has the MAC set up to play the narrative of author of the book the album is based on as well as a binder with the lyrics. We’re lined up in front of Steve Mazur and his wonderful sounding Marshall stack and full array of effects pedals, I am seriously impressed.

We get Life, Middle of Yesterday the lead vocals are soaring the crowd is heavily into it. This is one of the loudest crowds I have ever heard at a Massey Hall. It makes sense because this is a homecoming for this band. I really forgot how beautiful the guitar work is on this album. Basically we get the entire album song by song and it is really nice. I mean pull it out and play it through a few times again. I know you will say yeah!! Exactly!! The entire presentation worked well. I wanted to bolt home and pull out the Cd’s and it made me wish I been here the night before for Clumsy. There is still a chance they are playing Clumsy in Kitchener next week Friday. This album finishes with 3 very strong tunes, All My Friends, If You Believe and The Wonderful Future the best of the 3 is The Wonderful Future which Raine starts out saying they recorded this song never intending to play it live. The Wonderful Future has a hidden portion. The song lists at 20 minutes but fades out @ four minutes then is silent for 12 minutes before it coming back in with a conversation between the book author and someone else. (for obvious reasons the break was condensed down) I am not up on the whole thing enough to know who he is conversing with but I am up enough to know this was a great first set for this band and the entire album run through was perfect!!  In between sets I managed to snag a guitar pick.

The second set started out with Maida telling everyone that the band looked at the first set as work and now it is time to have some fun!! The second set consisted of a 13 songs. Starting out with Monkey Brains from Burn, Burn which had several tunes show up in this second set and then ran into Superman’s Dead, Innocent, Clumsy and One Man Army back to back to back!  The sing along with Innocent was pretty amazing with crowd basically singing the whole tune. Raine climbed the balcony at one point I think during One Man Army. I mean this whole chuck was worth the price of the ticket any day! A couple more from Burn and then we get a stellar Somewhere Out There! Then the unmistakable bass line to Naveed, Nice! This song finishes the set and the encore is not to be missed 4AM straight into Starseed!

Anyone worth their own weight in OLP appreciation was hooked back in 1994 by the Naveed album.
Overall I though Mazur’s guitar / guitar effects and Maida’s voice were in the best form possible. To be fair to the first shows I wasn’t in the front row and only one of these featured Mazur. The band was extremely appreciative of the crowd response and referred to this as a homecoming quite a number of times and as you could imagine this sent the crowd over the top every time. I managed to get a setlist from both sets. I stayed with this band until 1999 and Happiness and my interest beyond this period was somewhat sporadic and tied to radio hits but man I am glad I did this show!! It is nice to go back and listen to some of the stuff that came out I never paid much attention too.

Here is to new ground.

The Professional

The stage set up in the Sean O’Sullivan Theater at at Brock University on Friday night was evidence that there wasn’t going to be a rock show. On the stage were 2 microphone stands, 5 guitars and a keyboard.  When he was introduced the tall, lanky Plaskett appeared as though someone had told him ten minutes ago that he was performing tonight.  Loose sheets of paper in hand, he bumped his head on the microphone when he put them down, he looked, well, confused. None of this seemed to faze the crowd as there were numerous “I LOVE YOU JOEL” greetings before he had struck his first note.

As a prelude to Absentminded Melody he finger-picked and sang a brief, off-the-cuff salute to St. Catharines citing The Hideaway and The Mansion House.  After his first number he confessed to being up late the night before in Brooklyn, “You can probably tell by my voice, and the fact that I haven’t shaven.”  As he said this he broke a string trying to tune his guitar.  A collective sigh and chuckle.  You would assume that most Polaris Music Prize winning artists would have a stage hand run out and hand him a new guitar.  No suck luck.  “Anyone know how to put on a G-String?”  Eventually an audience member volunteered and strung it, sitting on the piano bench, taking as long as it took Joel to sing the second song.  “I should be able to tune this thing and tell you a story at the same time, I am a professional after all.”

What followed were 2 sets of songs from his latest, 3-disc record called 3, along with some old favorites, rare gems and yes, occasional lapses in professionalism.  Despite these the crowd, seemingly very familiar with his body of work, appreciated every moment and laughed with Joel as he laughed at himself.   A few songs in he announced that he was going to play a song on his keyboard, but rather than sitting down at the one set up he picked up what looked to be no more than a small toy keyboard held together by duct tape, a Value Village find no less.  On this he would eventually play very fun renditions of Television Set and Fashionable People, the last two songs you’d expect to hear during an acoustic set.  In addition that little toy accompanied him on Rewind, Rewind, Rewind, one of the shows highlights.

Taking a song that in the studio received much production treatment with numerous instruments and backing vocals and presenting it so stripped down live is the mark of a good performer, but moreover it reveals how good of a songwriter Plaskett is.  His songs seem to work no matter how they are played.  Once people began shouting out requests I was reminded of a Neil Young show 2 years ago when a pre-recorded announcement sternly told fans not to shout out requests because the set list was pre-determined.  Joel seemed flattered by the requests.  Even taken aback when one fan called for The News of Your Son.

“We don’t play that one often” Joel chuckled.  “

“I KNOW, I’VE SEEN YOU SEVEN TIMES AND I’VE NEVER HEARD IT!” the fan replied.   He played it of course, as far as I could tell he didn’t have a set list written out.   He seemed even more flattered at the request of a Thrush Hermit song.  “St. Catharines was always good to the Hermit” he grinned.

Peter Elkas of the Emergency eventually joined Joel onstage and backed him with vocals, guitar, and keys. The two finished off the first set on high note with hand-clapping favorites Happen Now and Rollin, Rollin, Rollin.

The second set had its share of high points and humorous moments.  Joel introduced Nowhere With You as one of his greatest hits and it didn’t disappoint.  He told stories, often in the middle of songs.

“That was the first verse, I think it went well.  Here comes the second, I hope you enjoy it.”

This one also introduced as a “new song” called “Old Friends”…

He spoke of his education in the week past and coming.  While in New York he took in a Broadway play starring Hugh Jackman and Daniel Craig called A Steady Rain.  He saw one of heroes Nick Cave perform, and next week he and Peter were off to Philadelphia to see Bruce Springsteen.  Elkas performed his own new single, the catchy Poor Young Things.  “When I sit down to write a song I always try to sound like Bruce Springsteen but it turns out sounding like Bob Seger’ Peter lamented.

Always personable with the audience, Joel and Peter were able to find the humor in the mishaps that occurred throughout the night.   Plaskett closed the show by dropping to his knees and feigning injury or exhaustion, either saluting James Brown or making fun of himself.  On cue, Peter brought out a cape and draped it over the star of the show, something he had foreshadowed in the opening number.  After retreating to the back of the stage he all of a sudden returned, triumphantly to finish the song.  In the midst of his charge back to the microphone he inadvertently unplugged his guitar and as he began to sing again there was no accompaniment.  Laughter ensued, most enthusiastically from the two performers.  Undeterred, they tried the entire scene again.  This time Plaskett’s cape knocked over the beautiful Gibson guitar Peter had been playing all night, sending it tumbling. That’s how it ended.  A great show that fell short on professionalism but no one in attendance seemed to mind.  It goes to show you, all the slick stage preparation and execution in the world are no substitute for talent and charm and Joel Plaskett has an abundance of both.

Another brief moment from Deny, Deny, Deny

The setlist, in no particular order, as far as I can remember:

The News Of Your Son

When I Have My Vision

Work Out Fine

The Day You Walked Away

Absentminded Melody

Television Set

Happen Now

Rewind, Rewind, Rewind

I Love This Town

Fashionable People

Penny For Your Thoughts

Face Of The Earth

You Let Me Down

Through & Through & Through

Safe In Your Arms

Sailors Eyes

Rewind, Rewind, Rewind

Precious, Precious, Precious

Deny, Deny, Deny

Rollin, Rollin, Rollin

Nowhere With You

Come on….“Them Crooked Vultures” …even with the name they are off to a good start . The short videos on YouTube had me interested and well being a concertaholic I knew reputation was enough for me to get a ticket and experience these guys live. I’ve listened to more Zeppelin than Foo’s or Queens of The Stone Age… so I will not be detailing the guys careers here or have a big say in who they sound like most. Just the show as I saw it.

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…..I take my hobby serious and jumped into the rainy line-up around 4pm. Only 20 people in line so far…so the front row was going to happen for me and it did. After a few hours of swapping concert stories with various music lovers including two fathers with their teenage kids… we headed in and I locked myself onto the rail directly in front of where one of the world’s most talented bassist’s would stand for 90 minutes.

With no CD out yet and very little information about the band… the rumours were no opening band and no encore. Fine I’ll take what I can get. Only moments away we are about to witness…Josh Homme on guitar and lead vocals, Dave Grohl on drums and John Paul Jones teaching bass. Plus, there was a fourth Crooked Vulture Alain Johannes on rhythm guitar.

The house music stops, the vultures walk out…say hello and explode into “Elephants”. The groove was on, the roll was heavy and goosbumps happened at 30 seconds into a song I’ve only heard twice on YouTube. Grohl gang banged his drum kit and I learned quickly that Homme knew what to do with a guitar… and John Paul Jones…. well it hadn’t really hit me that it was him 12 feet in front of me.

After the first song the crowd erupted and moved in closer as Josh started to introduce his Crooked band mates. He saved Jones for last and rather than say his name, he simply pointed over to him….and the entire crowd started chanting “JOHN PAUL JONES, JOHN PAUL JONES, JOHN PAUL JONES”  a slight smile from the man himself and that was just one of those moments you talk about for the next 10 years a parties!

The following 80+ minutes was a thunderous music demonstration from multiple genres along with creating one in the middle of it all. The direction changed too many times to remember with layer upon layer it seemed like a tennis match at times… for myself trying to decide who to zero in on as the boomerang of rock, blues and psychedelica bounced around in between flashes of light. For chemistry I noticed Josh really connecting with JPJ a few times…along with numerous vocal fills from each of the guys including John Paul Jones.

Here is Scumbag Blues to give you a feel…

As far as musicians from different bands hooking up… I saw Chickenfoot and for the money in a small venue it was fun although the music didn’t make much sense to me. This evening’s performance and this band made sensek. There is thought behind all Them Crooked Vultures… from the Bonham pounding Grohl to John Paul Jones playing that piano outro on Daffodils…straight on over to Homme who stood tall, proud and confident of what he and bandmate Alain Johannes were delivering.

In short…Elephants as a first song took me to a place many encores never have and the pace throughout was amazing right up to the last couple of  songs…… here is “Nobody Love Me” just deadly…..

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….and then… the closing tune  “Warsaw” . This was so killer  I couldn’t lift my arm to video and the insane jam for the final few minutes..was paralyzing….. they drew us in… playing harder and harder and then it ENDED. Done Right there. No Encore.

I got it…they had me… I wanted more. 90 minutes of songs I’ve never heard and I wanted another “set”

If you are following this band, were at this show or any shows this tour please leave us a comment or quick review of what you are digging about Them Crooked Vultures.

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