WAY Before The Concert
I met Moonbeam, Steve Jay's biggest fan, at the Philadelphia Weird Al concert. Prior to meeting her, we had only chatted online. As it turns out, she was sitting in the row in front of me. How did I recognize her? Was it the purple hair? No. Was it her BIG Ak & Zuie poster? Yes!
First of all, THANKS to Moonbeam for letting me crash on her floor with zero notice after the Asbury Park show was cancelled. If it weren’t for her generosity, I’d have nothing to write about!
The concert was in the Lucille Cafe at the B. B. King Blues Club and Grill on 42nd Street in the heart of NYC.
After wandering around Times Square that afternoon, Moonbeam, Megan, and I met up with Carlotta at B. B. King’s to see the show.
The wait staff at B. B. King’s was not impressive. The hostess wanted to seat us way in the back of the restaurant where we couldn’t see the stage. I told her firmly but politely that we had flown in from California (Carlotta) and Virginia (me) to see this show and we wanted to be front row. We got good seats but lousy service. I’ll take seats over service any day! Oh, and the hostess was very chilly to me the rest of the evening. Imagine that!?!
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Ak & Zuie
Ak & Zuie consists of the following extremely talented musicians:
- Steve Jay: lead vocals, 16 string bass
- Peter Gallagher: drums, vocals
With Special Guest…
- Jim West: guitar
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The Audience
The audience was a mixture of us hard-core fans, and the general public. The fans consisted of Moonbeam, Megan, Carlotta, Dave Rossi, Rachael May, Blaine, and Rich Green. Jay Levy, Weird Al’s manager, was there along with a guy I saw at the Orange County shows but have no idea what his name is. Steve’s son, Ian, was also there videotaping the show.
I noticed during the concert that many of the bar patrons stopped talking and started listening to the performance. Wow, now I know what it takes to get a New Yorker to shut up!
In a nutshell, the show ROCKED!!! This was my second Ak & Zuie concert. The first one was in Los Angeles on September 21, 2001.
The Set List
I did not write down the set list during the show but to me, the actual songs were secondary to the overall effect. The whole was definitely bigger than the sum of the parts.
First of all, let me say that if you have only seen Steve perform with Weird Al, you don’t even know the half of it. (All due respect to Al, of course!) Steve is the total package: writer, producer, arranger, and musician. Oh, and he is just as nice as he can be to all us fans. It all came together at B. B. King’s that night.
The first half of the gig was just Steve and Pete. If you’ve heard Steve’s solo work, or Ak & Zuie’s CD, you know that there are just so many layers of sound that it would take a marching band and a symphony orchestra to recreate live. The thing I find amazing is Steve and Pete can translate the smoky, shadowy musical layers from their CDs into a form that can be performed live and somehow still seems deeper than the music coming from just 2 instruments.
Steve was in great voice. Even when he’s singing really loud, his voice has an ethereal quality to it. Plus, he looked as happy as I have ever seen him on stage. It seemed as if he had to will himself to stop smiling long enough to sing a verse or two. Though I couldn’t hear what was going on, it seemed like Steve was joking with Pete and Jim throughout the whole show. Everyone on stage was smiling and enjoying themselves.
Steve has a genuine “awww shucks” attitude and none of the annoying “I’M A STAR!” posturing. You could see it on stage. I thought whenever people applauded, he seemed just the tiniest bit surprised.
I invited my Uncle Steven, a huge jazz fan, to the show. He was blown away. His first question was how come nobody knows about Ak & Zuie. (Well, I don’t think **nobody** knows about them, but I understood his point…)
My Uncle said that Pete was an excellent drummer. I told him that Pete was the drum tech for Bermuda. So my uncle replies, “You mean there’s a better drummer out there?” I won’t get into that debate, but you get what he meant. The tone in his voice was one of absolute shock, putting an even finer point on the subject. (I’d like to add that my uncle had no idea who Weird Al was. How could we possibly be related????)
Pete got a lot of applause after a few particularly tricky and well-done drum solos. Pete is an incredibly talented drummer -- he held his own with Steve all night long. I also think Pete’s voice is very compatible with Steve’s as they harmonized very well.
After the break, Jim West joined Steve and Pete on stage. Again, you just do not know Jim’s talent if you have only seen him looking like Abe Lincoln in Amish Paradise. He also got a lot of applause after a few very cool guitar solos. It looked to me like Jim was reading music before each song, but when he was jamming, it was absolutely seamless. The addition of a guitar totally changed the character of the music.
I spoke to Jim after the show and told him that it was just great to hear him just play. With only 3 instruments, I could hear Jim clearly for the first time. It was a real treat. Jim surprised me when he said that what he was having some sort of amplifier problem (I think that’s what he said anyway) and that he just went with it because he couldn’t fix it. Well, Jim, on our end, whatever came out was fabulous and I couldn’t believe that was not what you intended.
I got to talk to Steve for a moment and he thanked me for coming to BOTH shows. I laughed. Moonbeam took my picture with Steve. YAY!
I looked around for Pete but he was with his family, so I left him alone. Luckily, I was able to talk to him the night before after the Asbury Park show-that-never-was!
As much as I wanted to stay and mingle, I was dreading the drive back to Virginia. So, Moonbeam, Megan, and I left.
Luckily for Steve, Pete, and Jim, BB King’s asked them to play another set. Unfortunately for me, I had to work the next morning. BOO!