R.I.P. Ray Manzarek

When the music's over, turn out the lights.

Paired with the dark, earth-shattering poetry of Jim Morrison, Ray Manzarek would create a sound on his keyboards unlike any other at the time, making The Doors the most important American band of the late '60s and early '70s.  He was responsible for creating many colorful images in my head. I also love the work he did with X on their first few albums. Watch the documentaries and interviews and notice how Ray was still very enthusiastic and passionate about his band after all these years. He continued to carry on their legacy, for good and for bad, till this day. The music of The Doors has been a huge part of my life the past five years, and will continue to be for as long as I live.

P.S. Virtually every Doors song had a keyboard 'moment'. My favorite will always be Ray's solos from The Wasp (Texas Radio And The Big Beat). Combined with the mean guitar licks by Robby Krieger and John Densmore's firm drumming, it is rock & roll perfection.

The Gaslight Anthem @ Metro City

Dave Hause joins the band during American Slang

The first time I saw TGA in 2009, they blew me away. This time not so much. It wasn't a bad gig in any way, but I felt they could've done better. The band looked a bit tired, but then I could be wrong as I wasn't standing near the stage. I thought maybe they'd play longer, since Perth was the last stop of the Oz tour. Setlist wise, I'm more or less pleased with it. They must've put a lot of thought into the sequencing of the songs because it was almost impeccable. The Handwritten album was featured a lot, and it was actually one of the main reasons why I was back in Perth (yet again); I love the record to death and just had to see it done live. Yet to my disappointment, Mae wasn't played! A surprisingly good She Loves You took the opening encore slot instead. Here Comes My Girl was missing too. I would've really loved to hear more from American Slang and Sink Or Swim. Still, Angry Johnny & The Radio....what a cool moment that was! Of course The '59 Sound got plenty of airings, my personal favorite The Patient Ferris Wheel.

Brian Fallon was very talkative; he reminds a bit of Eddie Vedder, the only difference is that Brian likes to ramble on and on with no apparent train of thought. The result was some awesome, sometimes awkward stand-up comedy. When he spoke in between songs, his voice was loud and clear. But during the music, his vocals were pretty much drowned out by the band. Brian's just an average singer, but he's sincere as hell when he performs. He lives and breathes those words. Thanks to the lousy mix, I didn't feel that coming through. The guys were tight, but they could also get 'sloppy', making a few mistakes here and there. I've always liked that raw, imperfect quality in a live rock band. Benny Horowitz, as usual, was a fucking monster on the drums. Loved the final one-two punch of the last two tracks off The '59 Sound to cap the show. It felt good hearing Here's Looking At You, Kid for the first time!

1. Handwritten

2. Old White Lincoln

3. The '59 Sound

4. Even Cowgirls Get The Blues

5. American Slang

6. The Patient Ferris Wheel

7. Biloxi Parish

8. Angry Johnny And The Radio

9. Astro Zombies (Misfits cover)

10. Howl

11. "45"

12. Señor And The Queen

13. Wooderson

14. The Queen Of Lower Chelsea

15. Too Much Blood

16. Great Expectations

17. Keepsake

18. She Loves You

19. Mulholland Drive

20. Here's Looking At You, Kid

21. The Backseat

Metro City club after the show

One of the highlights of the night was supporting act, Dave Hause, lead singer of The Loved Ones. He and Gaslight go way back. Towards the end of his 45min solo set, he even did a medley that included Joe Strummer's Coma Girl, and The Hold Steady's Constructive Summer (which has a Strummer reference inside). 

THE DOORS app

 

It is arguably the most outstanding official band app ever designed for the iPad. I find it extremely educational and of course, entertaining. It will please new and hardcore fans alike. And the best part is there's no need to connect to the internet; all the media, and there's tons of it, is readily available. It also led me to this video: [link]. Can't think of a better way to keep the band and Jim Morrison's legacy alive.

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Mother

The last Dixie Chicks album was a long seven years ago -- the fantastic, no-compromise, Grammy Award sweeping Taking The Long Way. In 2010, two of them, sisters Emily Robison & Martie Maguire, made new music under the name, Court Yard Hounds, with Robison taking lead vocals for the first time. Meanwhile, Natalie Maines had been busy involving herself in the West Memphis Three case with other like-minded artists. This year she is back in the limelight with a new collection of mainly covers and a few originals. It's no surprise that she would do a record of her own eventually. Co-produced with Ben Harper, this is a mainly straight-up rock album that tackles more serious issues. It's kind of a mixed bag however.  

Without You is an Eddie Vedder ukelele song, and despite the new dense instrumentation, it still sounds a tad uninspired; the tenderness from the original is stripped away. Maines sings well on the title track, giving the 'mother' character more sympathy than the Pink Floyd version, but to my ears, it sounds as if she's just singing for the sake of singing. That 'soul' is missing. The two better covers more suited for her would be Silver Bell (Patty Griffin) and the Jayhawks' classic, I'd Run Away. But obviously the one that takes the top spot is Jeff Buckley's finest moment, Lover You Should've Come Over. It's a tough one to tackle, but Natalie fully understands how to approach it with her powerhouse vocal ability, and she does it with absolute grace and beauty. It's the kind of song where it's easy to over-sing , though she restraints herself from doing so.

It's mostly the original tunes which bear repeated listening. There's a non-country 'outtake' originally meant for inclusion in Taking The Long Way, Come Cryin' To Me, in which the group co-wrote with Jayhawks' Gary Louris. Listening to it makes me miss those trio harmonies. Trained is a Harper-penned hard rocking blues song right up his alley, not so much Natalie's. The two she co-wrote with Ben: a slow-grooving soulful Vein In Vein that somehow reminds me of Stephen Stills' So Many Times, minus the pedal steel, and the excellent contemplative closer, Take It On Faith. The best one has got to be Free Life, written by musician and past Dixie Chicks collaborator, Dan Wilson. It's a gorgeous, heartfelt call-to-action with an anthemic quality to it, about being true to yourself and being able to do what's right in life. It's also one of the best things she's ever sung in her career.

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Ready To Die

This is THE Stooges comeback album the world has been waiting for, not The Weirdness from 2007, with all due respect to the late, great Ron Asheton. This release is rather significant because Iggy Pop has recruited back guitarist James Williamson, who has not worked with the singer since the '70s. He is the reason why 1973's Raw Power (40 years already!) is one of the most influential and important rock albums of all time. One could even say it marked the birth of the whole punk movement. Scott Asheton remains behind the drum seat and Mike Watt fills in for Ron on bass. Released on Fat Possum Records, a small label that specializes in obscure Mississippi Blues artists, Ready To Die will never match the immense brilliance of the group's first three albums, but nevertheless it's a hell of a ride, with almost the same short running time as Raw Power. The only dud for me is the second song, Sex And Money. Everything else kicks my ass. The sound is back to classic Stooges. Humor and sex still reign in the words. Burn, Job, Gun is so damn good. Williamson shows no sign of slowing down whatsoever. And this is a man who only recently rejoined the music biz after having worked in a corporate environment (eventually becoming vice president for Sony Technology Standards) for thirty years. He's even better live. I love the return of the sax, coupled with a fat, juicy riff on DD's. Meanwhile, Iggy still has that 'seductive' voice; I especially love it when he sings in a lower register (Beat That Guy rocks hard), like in the closing ballad, The Departed, which I assume is a tribute to Ron Asheton, ultra-dark but beautiful in a twisted kind of way. It was a thrill to finally see the band live this year; I'll probably never get the chance to do so again.

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Kraftwerk in 3D

Never thought I would enjoy an electronic music concert so much. I missed Kraftwerk the first time they performed at the Esplanade years ago. Glad they came back again. The 3D visuals worked their charm during most parts, though after a while it was quite tiring on the eyes. And hearing Computer Love for the first time, I realized Coldplay directly lifted off its main melody line for use in their song, Talk. Trans Europe Express was a highlight. What a fun gig tonight was!