Medleyville

Tommy Keene/The Figgs/Seth Tiven
Maxwell's -- Hoboken, N.J.
June 16, 2006

An unofficial Tommy Keene (above) itinerary for the past decade would read like this:

Release critically praised but modestly selling indie album every three or four years. Follow it up by hitting the road with backing band to support the disc on a short tour of small clubs. Perform tight and often smoldering shows, even if the club is half full on many nights.

If it sounds like a career rut, consider the rewarding manner in which this cycle inevitably ends: with old fans and new converts alike wondering how such a unique singer/songwriter/guitarist has not found more mainstream recognition since an ill-fated major label stint in the late '80s.

It was a question worth pondering again as Keene and his band ripped through a taut hour-long performance, fresh off the spring release of his sixth studio album, Crashing the Ether (Eleven Thirty Records). The disc is one of his strongest and perhaps his darkest collection of songs, and the new offerings fit comfortably alongside nuggets from various points of his career as sweet, silvery slices of earnest, driving but never dissonant power pop.

Disc opener "Black and White New York" kick-started the Maxwell's show with a common Keene blueprint: contemplative verses set to thunderous drums and an alluring dual guitar attack. Yet even the more personal, understated new tracks took on a bar-band buoyancy, thanks to the inspired playing and performing put forth by Keene -- who enjoys emphatic head bobbing between verses almost as much as he does tuneful, minor-chord noodling at a song's coda -- and his musicians (guitarist Dave Phillips; bassist/vocalist Paul Chastain, better known from the band Velvet Crush; and longtime drummer John Richardson).

The jangly "Quit That Scene" was much more muscular than on record, yet retained a tinge of tenderness in Chastain's harmony vocals on the choruses; "Driving Down the Road in My Mind" was a flawless, fiery ballad that earned the players some of the loudest applause of the night -- and not just because the tune was capped with Keene's solo from the front of the crowd.

The night served as much as a showcase for Keene's new material as a reminder why he remains a cult hero to the most ardent melodic rock disciples: his body of ultra-catchy, should-be hits. The gorgeous melancholy of "Silent Town" was an early-set highlight, drawing to a close with Keene's flurry of echoing mini-solos. Later, he elicited hoots of approval from the die-hards in the crowd when he unearthed "My Mother Looked Like Marilyn Monroe" -- a gem from his 1986 debut album, Songs From the Film -- and amped things up further with the anthemic "Long Time Missing" and "Places That Are Gone," his signature closer.

Keene and his band utilized their encore to unleash an uproarious cover of Lou Reed's "Kill Your Sons," which he has been performing for more than two decades. He attacked it with such joy, it sounded like the kind of song Keene would be belting out anyplace for the sheer fun of it, even if he were not still navigating the unforgiving fringe of the music biz.

Guitar pop trio The Figgs -- under-the-radar indie-rock warhorses in their own right -- had the unenviable task of following such a crowd-pleasing set, and they were more than up to the task. Cramming 22 foot-stomping songs into 65 minutes, the band rewarded the few dozen fans who stayed late (the set began at 12:30 a.m.) with a full-tilt show that took on the feel of a pep rally at times.

It included a sizeable and promising sampling of their forthcoming album, while vocalists Mike Gent (guitar) and Pete Donnelly (bass) also honored fans' call-outs for older tracks, such as "The Daylight Strong," from the band's deep catalog. The threesome even headed into the crowd for two songs, the highlight of which saw drummer Pete Hayes keeping the beat with a drumstick on his beer bottle as he sauntered around the club, leading the sing-along on "Bad Luck Sammie."

Opening act Seth Tiven, the leader (read: sole mainstay) of '80s college-radio darlings Dumptruck, seemed an appropriate inclusion on this bill -- at least on paper. Armed with his acoustic guitar and warbling vocals (think Neil Young, only without hitting the high notes), Tiven turned in a colorless 50 minutes of hackneyed introspection that got the evening off to a dreary start.

-- By George Henn

Posted by Medleyville at 10:15 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Disco Biscuits strut their stuff on new concert set

Just like with a studio effort, attention to detail is essential when recording a concert album.

"I think one of the hardest things to do when you release any live album is [to] capture the energy that really only exists at the actual concert," says keyboardist/singer Aron Magner of the Philadelphia-based jam band the Disco Biscuits, whose The Wind at Four to Fly (Diamond Riggs/Sci Fidelity Records) was released in April.

"You have watts and watts of sound coming at you, and you have the full stage concert experience, the light show, thousands of people and all the energy that they give off. I think with The Wind at Four to Fly, the energy really translates well [to] the disc."

Each audio element on The Wind at Four to Fly is multitracked, says Magner.

"Every individual keyboard goes into a separate input; the hi-hat mike and the snare mike are all separate, so everything can be controlled and EQd and compressed separately to try and preserve as pristine of a sound quality as we could," he explains.

"Plus, the producer who did this, Jon Altschiller, does a phenomenal job capturing the energy," he adds. "Why he's so good is that he just has a really good ear in terms of being able to hear specific frequencies that won't clash with others, so he could truly bring out the best possible sound."

The two-disc The Wind at Four to Fly was recorded over several nights in late December 2004 and serves as a swan song for drummer Sam Altman. He announced his decision to leave following a Biscuits studio session that resulted in a cover of "Gimme Three Steps" for a Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute album released that fall.

"It was a great day; it was incredibly productive," recalls Magner. "Everybody was in a good mood; I was about to hop the train back to Philly; everybody else was doing their own thing around New York later that night . . . [and] Sammy said, 'Can you not take the train back? I'd like to talk to everybody.'

"His heart just wasn't in it anymore. He obviously had been mulling it around in his head for a year, trying to figure out if it was the right decision that he needed to make and how to present it to the band. And he decided that the best way to present it was at a time when we were all in a good mood, not coming out of a fight or something like that. He wanted to let us know that this was a life change that he needed to make, not something that was the result of him being unhappy in the band.

"It took us a while to accept it. We went through the 12 different stages -- disbelief, anger and everything. We're all still good friends and wish him luck with everything."

The Disco Biscuits auditioned about 25 drummers, says Magner, before selecting Allen Aucoin as Altman's replacement.

"We played two shows in Atlantic City last fall [with the] top four prospects that we had," explains Magner. "Each of the four drummers took a set, and it was pretty obvious to everybody in the band as well as the crowd that Allen was the No. 1 choice."

He adds, "There were two epiphanies we had with Allen. The first was his first audition; we flew him up for three different auditions. During his first audition, he nailed 'Svengali.' And there was a moment where the three of us looked at each other [as if to say], 'Wow, this guy is good.' And that same moment then happened onstage in Atlantic City when we were playing 'Save the Robots' -- he just killed it."

The Wind at Four to Fly features extended solos and long songs, both of which are staples among jam bands. Sometimes those characteristics can be a turnoff to mainstream music fans, but toning things down in order to win them over doesn't seem to interest Magner.

"I think any of the jam bands have always tried to step outside of the box and not be pigeonholed, but the community exudes such positivity and support," he says. "What other scene in the industry will have droves of kids flying all the way across the country and the world [for concerts]? It's pretty hard to find that in a fan.

"We're always trying to capture new fans. I don't think in doing so do we ever want to abandon the community that's supported us for all these years."

-- By Chris M. Junior

Disco Biscuits on tour (schedule subject to change):

* June 16: Bonnaroo festival -- Manchester, Tenn.

* June 22-23: The Stone Pony -- Asbury Park, N.J.

* July 14: Marvin's Mountaintop (part of the All Good Music Festival) -- Masontown, W.Va.

* Aug. 5: Grant Park (part of Lollapalooza) -- Chicago

* Aug. 25-26: Hunter Mountain Ski Resort (annual Camp Bisco festival) -- Hunter, N.Y.

Posted by Medleyville at 09:14 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Skills remain intact, but most songs don't measure up

In the 1982 film Fast Times at Ridgemont High, teen ticket scalper Mike Damone (masterfully played by Robert Romanus) sings a medley of now-classic Cheap Trick songs to a female fan who's on the fence about purchasing seats to the band's upcoming concert.

Had the movie been made today, Damone probably would have included only one or two of the 12 tunes found on Cheap Trick's Rockford (Cheap Trick Unlimited/Big3 Records), an overall mediocre effort.

Roughly 30 years into its career, Cheap Trick suffers from the same blessing and curse that fellow American rock mainstay Aerosmith does -- collective chops remain intact, but song quality rarely comes close to that of the band's glory days. "If It Takes a Lifetime," "Give It Away," "One More" and "Every Night and Every Day" epitomize Rockford in that their titles are as ordinary as the songs themselves.

A few tracks on Cheap Trick's latest can be traced in some way to the band's salad days, and knowing the collective tongue-in-cheek nature of Robin Zander, Rick Nielsen, Tom Petersson and Bun E. Carlos, chances are this was done on purpose. Whether intentional or coincidental, all it does in most cases is create the urge to stop the new songs and play the tunes they resemble instead.

Rockford starts with "Welcome to the World," a short rocker in the same ballpark thematically and structurally as "Hello There," which opened In Color. The other déjà vu moments come not from the lyrics or music, but from the titles: "Dream the Night Away," "Come On Come On Come On" and "O Claire" automatically conjure thoughts of, respectively, "Dancing the Night Away" (found on Next Position Please), "Come On, Come On" (another great In Color track) and "Oh Claire" (the short-but-sweet Heaven Tonight closer). Only "Dream,” with its Byrds-like guitar intro and George Harrison-ish melody in the verses, is better than its ancestor.

Rockford has two other standout moments: "This Time You Got It," highlighted by Carlos' sturdy drum beat and Nielsen's snarling guitar; and "Decaf," with a sinister-sounding Zander exploring the lower end of his vocal range and Petersson alternating between a driving and rubbery sound on his bass.

Three hits in 12 at-bats -- that's a .250 average, which in baseball is merely OK, and the same goes for Rockford.

-- By Chris M. Junior

Posted by Medleyville at 10:32 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)

Pearl Jam/My Morning Jacket
Continental Airlines Arena -- East Rutherford, N.J.
June 3, 2006

Those fans who entered Continental Airlines Arena on June 3 to check out the opening set by My Morning Jacket received more than advertised.

Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder (above) kicked the night off by treating the early arriving crowd to a solo-acoustic performance of Bruce Springsteen's "No Surrender." Vedder then introduced My Morning Jacket and joined the group for a version of The Band's "It Makes No Difference."

Minus Vedder, My Morning Jacket played a rockin' 45-minute set, mixing hard-rock guitar riffs and Southern soulfulness. Highlights included "What a Wonderful Man" and "Wordless Chorus," two songs from its acclaimed Z album, released last year.

As for Pearl Jam, the band spread some new songs from its new self-titled disc throughout a 32-song, two-hour-plus set. The crowd was obviously ignited by the up-tempo opener, "Severed Hand," as Vedder sang the lines "Got some kicks/Wanna take a ride/I said yeah!"

Far from a greatest hits show, the band did play quite a few of its FM rock radio staples, including "Corduroy," "Even Flow," "Last Kiss," "Black" and "Alive." Pearl Jam also mixed in such rarities as "Rats," "Hard to Imagine," "Leash" and "Don't Gimme No Lip," which featured guitarist Stone Gossard on lead vocals.

The Led Zeppelin-ish "Inside Job," which can be found on the new album, was a highlight; it featured guitarist Mike McCready playing long, note-bending solos like those found on "Porch" and the show closer, "Yellow Ledbetter."

The night wasn't perfect -- four songs into its set, Pearl Jam suddenly lost power during the beginning riff to "Animal." As crew members frantically scrambled to get things working again, Vedder played it up onstage, pantomiming until the sound returned. When it did (about 10 minutes later), Vedder joked, "Hey, Bruce! Could you at least pay the bill on your way out?"

-- By Michael Corby

Posted by Medleyville at 10:18 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)