In case you missed it, a comet that visits roughly twice a decade burned through the northeast corridor last weekend. It lit up the skies over the Roseland Ballroom in New York City, and Boston's Orpheum Theatre, before crashing through the atmosphere to destroy the venue known as the Oakdale Theater in Wallingford, CT. The name of this heavenly gift is Jeff Beck. Joining him were bandmates Jennifer Batten (guitar/midi), Randy Hope-Taylor (bass) and Steve Alexander (drums/keys), on tour in support of the new Epic release, "Who Else?" Nine of its eleven tracks were played from the blazing opening of "What Mama Said" and "Psycho Sam", into the beautiful "Brush with the Blues". "Blast from the East" with that Jennifer Batten down the hatches riff that sets the tempo for some destructive bandwork to follow.
The reflective "Declan" gave everyone a few moments to catch their breath before the supercharged "THX 138" with its roadway/lightning screenshow took it away again. "Space for the Papa", a soundcheck jam which rocks, set up the hauntingly quiet "Angel (footsteps)" which had some amazing fretwork. This was followed by "Even Odds". Most years this would have been a full show but on this night Jeff saw fit to pummel the crowd with some rarely played classics such as Starcycle, The Pump, Led Boots w/drum solo, Cause We Ended as Lovers, You Never Know, Blue Wind, Savoy, Where Were You, Big Block w/ SS Banner, and A Day in the Life (the Beatles).
The production of this show was top notch -- one of the best lit shows I`ve seen in 25 years of local concert going. Sound was good; it helps when the sides of the front stage in this venue has speakers.
The evening was started off by Paul Thorn -- Tales from the Trailer Park is the best I can describe his sound, great voice and full sounding acoustic guitar with lyrics that will make you smile. Some of his songs were titled Burn Down the Trailer Park, Turnip Greens, and Two Dogs in Heat.
Hopefully we pass thru this comet's tail again before too long..........
More pix:
Jeff Beck
Jennifer Batten
Review and photos by Marcus DeCarlo
1999, 1998, 1997 Rock Notes On-Line - http://www.oocities.org/SunsetStrip/5014/
