(time keeps on slippin', slippin', slippin'...into the future...)
Another week, another tour to follow. Them's a lot of abbreviations...for the uninitiated, this blues-rock triple bill extravaganza consisted of the North Mississippi Allstars, Big Head Todd & the Monsters, and (duh) Blues Traveler. Despite them being one of the bigger acts on the radio while I was in high school/college, I'd never actually seen Big Head Todd live, and the North Mississippi Allstars being from...north Mississippi, I'd never managed to catch them, though I'd heard good things from a number of taper friends and trading partners. But in general, unless I go see a band, I just don't have time to listen to them, with all the stuff piled up on my desk (I really should write another entry like this one...) so in this case, I went in blind. But after my last trip to Meadowbrook, I was really looking forward to going back.
Almost completely blind, as it was, thanks to the enormous amount of water falling from the sky on my entire drive up there. I think I saw an ark float by. And oddly, the rain was always the hardest when I was driving through a town - Salem, Plymouth, etc. I made better time on the highway but it was like the rain knew I was speeding to try to get there in time (I was anticipating a hassle at the gate, since in their infinite wisdom they printed "no recording devices" on the ticket, at the sign at the venue, and on the web site, despite the pro-taping policy of all three bands). And of course, when I pulled into the parking lot with my big bag of electronics to carry into the venue (no short walk, by the way), it was still raining like that which is engaged in intercourse with a maternal unit. Fortunately, after a similar situation a year or two ago, we've always had an umbrella in the back of the car, so I managed to stagger my way through the raindrops with said umbrella, a 15-pound bag over one shoulder and a four-foot tripod in a lacrosse stick bag over the other. Fishing the ticket out of the bag was quite a challenge as well - I'm sure I gave the ticket-taker quite a chuckle, trying to shift my weight without toppling over. And I was very grateful to find that the bands had alerted security that taping was allowed, being hardly in the mood to be toddling back to the car to leave my equipment in there.
Once again, the show was general admission seating, and despite the weather, I'd still managed to get there before the opening act went on. And because of said weather, the seats were rather sparsely settled, allowing me to set up more or less where we had sat for the previous show. I went a few rows forward so as to escape some of the chatter from the aisle behind us, and to get a bit closer to the sweet spot (often 2/3 of the way from the stage to the soundboard in larger venues rather than right at the soundboard...many tapers swear by the "FOB [Front Of Board] or die!" mantra). Had to set up rather quickly but I did manage to get everything running in time to catch the ever-so-brief opener set by the North Mississippi Allstars. My first impression...where's the other guy? Their web site has four members in the picture on the front, but only three took the stage - Luther, the guitarist and lead singer, Cody, the drummer and Luther's brother, and Chris, the bassist...but no Duwayne, who also plays guitar. Still, these guys put out a LOT of sound. Some good grooving blues-rock, and versatile at that - toward the end of their set, Luther and Cody switched places and held up admirably, while Chris held down the low end, just grinning and playing the highest bass I've ever seen - he had it WAY up on his chest. And then after 37 minutes, it was over. Although they're playing FIVE shows in Massachusetts in August, they're all on islands or way the hell down Cape Cod. Weird to think that it's quicker to go to several states than it is to go to Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, or Wellfleet. Though I can't blame 'em for wanting to play some beachfront gigs over the summer.
Big Head Todd came on, and with barely a word of acknowledgment, just got right down to business - lots of good, solid guitar work, a touch of familiar tunes from my college days (Midnight Radio, Bittersweet, Broken Hearted Savior), and some guy behind me who was a bit overenthusiastic about every single song. His entire interaction with the band and the crowd around him consisted of two things: the loudest, most annoying whistle imaginable, and a hoarse, raspy, leather-lunged "YEAH!" So to recap: FWEEEE! YEAH! FWEEE! YEAH! FWEEEE! YEAH! FWEEE! YEAH! FWEEEE! YEAH! It was like a hick-hop version of Rob Base and DJ EZ Rock.
Now for some REAL time machine stuff - back in the very early days, Blues Traveler and the Spin Doctors were all good friends, often playing gigs on the same street in New York City. According to stories, one day, the members of one band went down during set break at their show to visit the other band, and guested with them until it was time to resume their own show. Eventually the two got to such a point of comfort with each other's material that they could end up jamming from one band's set straight into the other's, completely switching venues in the process! At some point they started just booking shows together rather than braving the streets between sets, and would go so far as to have three or four full-band segues during a single show. They managed to successfully pull off the feat during the first HORDE tour with a few other bands (Aquarium Rescue Unit, Widespread Panic), then reprised the olden days a couple of times on a 1994 European tour, but as the bands grew in popularity and became more concerned with the technical aspect of the show and how one band sounded on another's equipment. So what does this have to do with the rest of the concert?
"Right about now we'd like to call out Blues Traveler to sit in on this one with us." The band took their place at their kits behind Big Head Todd's setup, and then both bands - nine people in total - launched into a cover of Led Zeppelin's "Fool In The Rain"...quite apropos. After about five or six minutes and a few verses, the bassist turned and wandered off-stage, unplugged and started watching. Big Head Todd himself stepped back to let Chan and John take solos, clasped his hands in front of his head, bowed ever so slightly to the crowd, and waved as he walked off to a swell of applause. Then four stagehands descended upon the Monsters' drummer, carefully unplugging the various drum mics and other cables without getting whacked by an errant drum stick. And then - in perhaps the biggest roar of the night - the stagehands each grabbed a corner of the riser that the drummer was on, and simply wheeled the guy off-stage while he continued to bash on his skins. They came back and did the same to the keyboardist, who instead of playing, elected to stand up and pretend to surf as he was trundled across the stage, again to the audience's great amusement and loud approval. In the meantime, Blues Traveler had descended deep into a free-form jam, and continued to morph and evolve it while the stagehands returned and pushed BT's keyboard and drum risers up into position. When the band finally all returned to the same page and slowly merged into the drum-and-bass driven rhythm of "The Path", I knew I'd seen what few others had over the past ten years, and felt lucky to be witnessing it.
The rest of the show essentially consisted of four long segues over the course of an hour and 45 minutes - the first song stretched ino three more, followed by another five-song string, a quick two-hit segue with the first song ("All Hands") left unfinished, and then four more tunes, including the end of "All Hands" before sending the crowd home happy with the end of "Run-Around", which they'd begun over an hour previous. It would have been a perfect night if my battery hadn't run out - AGAIN - in the middle of "But Anyway"... fortunately I'd brought my spare and used it for the last ten minutes. That bad batt has now been banished to the bottom of my bag (holy alliteration, Batman). They ended up not even playing an encore because they'd run so long during the regular set (including a 15-minute-plus "Mulling It Over" with Luther from NMAS on a badass guitar. Also happened to run into some old Blues Traveler friends that I hadn't seen for at least six years or show (one of them had gone to see BT at Madison Square Garden with me and caught Popper's hat when he tossed it out into the crowd after the encore - that's how close we were), and although I was flying solo, I did have company since that bunch of friends showed up (or stopped by to say hi, at least!).
Thankfully, other than a wrong turn onto 93 North (<-- dumbass), the drive home was perfectly uneventful. Did about 85 the whole way and rolled into bed around 1:45...oof.
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