Concert #701 - Justin Townes Earle at McCabe's Guitar Shop (February 14, 2014)

Acoustic music and loud coughing is not a good combination. Friday night at McCabe's, the acoustic music was delivered by Justin Townes Earle, while I struggled to suppress an insuppressible cough that had been bugging me for weeks. Sadly, I did not last long. It all became too painful and too futile, so I had to beat a retreat after only seven songs. This write-up will be short.

Justin took the stage half a minute after his name was announced. Why the delay? "I had to pee" was his humorous justification, then he launched into "Memphis In The Rain", followed by "Ain't Glad I'm Leaving". Next came "Single Mothers" and Billy Joe Shaver's "Georgia On A Fast Train". He sounded good and I liked his guitar playing very much.

Justin Townes Earle at McCabe's

I stuck around just long enough to hear "Ain't Waitin'", "Mama's Eyes" and "One More Night In Brooklyn". Two minutes later I was back in my car, heading home in a somber mood while coughing my brains out.

Justin Townes Earle at McCabe's

Justin is quite a talent. The songs he writes are very good and he knows how to deliver them. The seven songs I managed to catch were not repetitive at all and neither was his guitar playing. He is definitely someone who can entertain a crowd all by himself, for the full duration of a long concert.

The stage

Concert #282 - Brian Wilson & Friends at UCLA's Royce Hall (October 6, 2002)

Announced as "Brian Wilson & Friends", this was the fifth annual Carl Wilson Foundation benefit concert, organized at UCLA's Royce Hall. From the moment I saw the concert announcement I knew that a few notable "friends" would show up, and they did.

Over the years, I have had relatively good luck getting decent seats at UCLA. For this concert I sat about seven or eight rows back from the stage, dead center. Not bad.

The most notable friend turned out to be Eric Clapton. He was featured extensively in the second half of the show. First, accompanied by Brian Wilson's band, Eric played  "Stormy Monday" and "Layla", then a bit later he took the stage during Brian's headlining set and once again for the encore.

Brian Wilson (left) & Eric Clapton at UCLA (photo by Adrees Latif)

Led by Mark McGrath, Sugar Ray, the band, delivered a short set that included "Every Morning" and "Fly", their catchy radio hit. They ended the set with "Do It Again", the old Beach Boys song, performed with the participation of Carnie and Wendy Wilson (Brian's daughters and two-thirds of the successful trio appropriately named Wilson Phillips).

Earlier in the evening, In Bloom, a three-piece band that included Justyn Wilson and Carl B. Wilson, the sons of Carl and Dennis Wilson, respectively, delivered a short set that wasn't bad, but did not stand out either. They were followed by their cousins Carnie and Wendy Wilson, who sang "Til I Die" and "This Whole World", but they weren't done - they came back after the intermission to provide back-up vocals for Brian and some of the guest stars.

Brian Wilson's band consisted of the Wondermints, an LA-based power-pop band, reinforced with a few musicians among whom the talented Jeff Foskett stood out. Jeff played the guitar and sang lead as well as back-up vocals on a number of Beach Boys covers. Jeff's singing, especially his falsetto voice, was remarkably good. The band did a great job recreating the many different sounds of the Beach Boys.

Brian's headlining set benefited from the participation of a number of guests: Eric Clapton helped out on "Good Vibrations" and "Warmth Of The Sun", while daughters Carnie and Wendy provided harmony vocals on "God Only Knows". Matthew Sweet and Billy Hinsche sang the lead vocals on "Sail On Sailor", with Brian singing back-up and I was quite impressed with Matthew's singing. The three members of In Bloom came back to sing lead on "Time To Get Alone" and "Forever", the latter being Dennis Wilson's best-known song. Brian's set also included "Help Me, Rhonda", "Wonderful" and "Heroes And Villains".

Other contributors included Van Dyke Parks, who, together with Matthew Sweet, performed "Ride", a tune written by the Wondermints, the accompanying band. Van Dyke also performed a couple of songs from "Orange Crate Art", an album released jointly by Brian and Van Dyke in 1995.

The encore brought together all of the earlier performers, plus Bill Medley, Jackson Browne and America's Gerry Beckley and Dewey Bunnell, who apparently couldn't just sit idle and watch. Seeing these legendary artists on stage alongside Eric Clapton, Brian Wilson and all the others gave me a massive thrill. Together, they played "Barbara Ann", "Surfin' USA" and "Fun, Fun, Fun", with Eric looking the happiest of them all.

After all the guests left the stage, Brian and Jeff Foskett played Carl Wilson's "Heaven" in what turned out to be the final song of an evening that was both unforgettable and exhausting.

Concert T-shirt

 Brian Wilson's band 

Jeff Foskett (guitar, vocals)

Darian Sahanaja (keyboard, vibraphone, vocals)

Nick "Nicky Wonder" Waluska (guitar, vocals)

Probyn Gregory (guitar, French horn, trumpet, vocals)

Scott Bennett (keyboards, vibes, percussion, vocals)

Paul Mertens (saxophone, flutes, harmonicas)

Mike D'Amico (percussion)

Taylor Mills (vocals)

Bob Lizik (bass)

Jim Hines (drums)

The following photos are taken from:

http://www.carlwilsonfoundation.org/walk02/concert02b.htm

(copyright holders: M. Dowdle Head and Rene Diaz)

If requested, I will remove all photos without delay.

Brian Wilson with daughters Wendy (left) and Carnie at UCLA

Carnie Wilson (left) and Wendy Wilson at UCLA

Eric Clapton (left) & Jeff Foskett at UCLA

In Bloom at UCLA

Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath at UCLA

Darian Sahanaja of the Wondermints at UCLA

Matthew Sweet (left) and Billy Hinsche at UCLA

Van Dyke Parks at UCLA

 

Concert #700 - The Dustbowl Revival at Boulevard Music (February 8, 2014)

Last night was my sixth time to see the Dustbowl Revival in concert in slightly less than two years, a clear sign that I can't stay away from their seated shows in the Los Angeles area. This time I caught them at Culver City's Boulevard Music, a venue located a mere fifty-one miles from my home.

The band came out as an octet that included Zach Lupetin (vocals, guitar), Liz Beebe (vocals, washboard), Daniel Mark (mandolin), Connor Vance (violin), Matt Rubin (trumpet), Ulf Bjorlin (trombone), Josiah Mory (upright bass) and Josh Heffernan (drums). 

Overall, last night's show was not different from the previous ones, and that is not a negative. Once again, the band put on a quality show in all respects: great pace from beginning to end, excellent song selection, soulful vocals, good humor, outstanding musicianship, a smorgasbord of different styles of music and full democracy, with each band member given sufficient time to strut their stuff. The band was given a well-deserved standing ovation by the one-hundred-strong crowd. 

The Dustbowl Revival live at Boulevard Music

The show kicked-off with one of my favorite songs, Western Passage, with violinist Connor Vance playing the part of the acoustic guitar handled so well in the past by Ray Bergstrom. Good songs kept coming one after the other. As always, they threw in a couple of new ones, something I always welcome, even though that is typically done at the expense of songs I would have loved to hear. Last night we didn't get the hear "Dan's Jam", nor "Swing Low", but we were treated to great renditions of  the seldom-played "Nobody's Fault But Mine" and "The Ballad Of Judas Iscariot".

Partial Set List

Whiskey In The Well

Lampshade On

Soldier's Joy

Western Passage

Lowdown Blues

John The Revelator

Nobody's fault But Mine

Ain't My Fault

New Cherokee Shuffle

No Anchor Fag

Double Down

The Ballad Of Judas Iscariot

Before The Train Rolls Away

Falling Down

Down By The Riverside

Daniel, Liz, Josh and Zach at Boulevard Music

Bassist Josiah Mory

Just like in my earlier blog entries, I must say that I admire Zach Lupetin for what he has achieved with his band. I've seen a few concerts in my life, but I can't think of too many acts capable of being as entertaining as the revivalists, as well as cover as wide a musical territory as they do. I'm also amazed by how well the band has survived the inevitable changes of personnel.

Zach Lupetin during the intermission

The Boulevard Music is not a bad place to see a live show. The place is intimate, the sound is good and the crowd is there for the music and nothing else.

Concert organizer Gary Mandell

The concert room

The stage