ebm@ucbingres.ARPA (Grady Toss) (07/22/85)
(Another attempted posting, apologies for any duplication) Alex Chilton @ The I-Beam ------------------------- Alex Chilton, one time boy-wonder lead singer of the Box Tops, and pop mastermind of Big Star is currently on the comeback trail, touring in support of his soon-to-be-released EP. I never had the opportunity to see Big Star in the short time they were active (circa 1972), nor Chilton when he was performing with the neo- rockabilly band, Panther Burns. After seeing him last week at San Fran- ciso's I-Beam, I get the impression I missed him at the peak of his powers. His current band is a three piece: bass, drums, and Chilton on guitar. They headlined a show a few days earlier at the Berkeley Square and were scheduled to open for Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians at the I-Beam. Hitchcock got ill, and Chilton and band played two long sets, totaling about 2 to 2 1/2 hours of music. Their set was composed of equal parts new Chilton originals, old Chilton classics (`Soul Deep' and `The Letter' from the Box Tops era; `September Gurls', `Down The Street', etc. from the Big Star era), plus some very interesting covers (`B-A-B-Y', the Shangri-la's `Past, Present and Future'). After a number of years at the bottom (of a bottle apparently), Chilton cuts a rather emaciated figure on stage. His voice still has the sweet ring of the Big Star days, and he seems to have a great time playing his guitar (mostly great rhythm guitar)... but the spark that comes out so clearly on his 60's and 70's recordings only came out on a few of the night's songs. As one of the father's of the current crop of pop oriented bands (REM, dB's, Let's Active, Chris Stamey, ...) he is nothing less than a living legend, and in that respect he is a must see. It's also possible that as he performs more regularly he'll return to what I surmise was his peak form. Knitters/Washington Squares @ I-Beam ------------------------------------ This is the 2nd San Francisco visit for the neo-folkniks from NYCNY... The first time they were here, about a year ago, they had the most attentive audience I've ever seen at a concert. This time, they were opening for the Knitters, and only had about 35 minutes to hypnotize. They've written a few new songs (`Cezanne, Cezanne, the Father of Cubism'), and picked up lots of new classics from the Library of Congress. Killer versions of `Green Back Dollar' and `If I Had My Way'. They still wear the black and white striped boat shirts, the berets and Wayfarer sunglasses. Perfect studies. But their commitment to folk music as a means for getting out ideas goes beyond mimicry. I think they play the beatnik angle to get attention, and then they use the attention to get themselves heard. They play at a lot of union rallies and such (I think they played for the demonstrators at Columbia). See 'em! (Go early if they're playing at a place with video, and maybe they'll bring their cassette with Beany and Cecile taking a ride to Hungry I-Land, to visit Go Man Van Go... it's ca-razy). The headliner act, the Knitters, featuring Exene and John Doe from X, and Dave Alvin from the Blasters was pretty much of a let down. They just didn't convince me. They have good, sometimes even great, taste in music... but it just didn't swing for me. Rank and File @ The Stone Chip and Tony Kinman/The Long Ryders @ I-Beam --------------------------------------------- The Kinman brothers rode into town a few weeks before their band and opened for the Long Ryders with an acoustic set. I was hoping they'd be playing the Everly Brothers, which to some small extent they did. Mostly though they did acoustic guitar arrangements of some RAF tunes, and lots of country covers. Not bad, but not electrifying. The Long Ryders on the other hand were really amazing. Quite the rock band these days. They've dropped off a bit of their Flying Burrito Brothers/ Gram Parsons country leanings and moved more towards rocking and rolling. The Elvis tapestry hung behind the drummer really set the tone. Well worth going out of your way to see. Rank and File also showed themselves to be a first rate rock 'n' roll band, but after three or four songs the thrill started to wear a bit thin. Three O'Clock @ Wolfgang's Three O'Clock @ UC Berkeley's Greek Theater ------------------------------------------- (Wolfgang's) As Pupi Campo almost said, Wha's hoppened?? These guys, who used made such a great transition from the garage-punk Salvation Army to the paisley under- ground Three O'Clock, have now taken on a fucking fashion consultant who's got them wearing honest-to-god HAIRDOS and CLOTHES. Louis, the guitarist, seems to have even gone to the Arthur Murray stage posing school. Their fans seem to be dropping in age with every appearance. Their desire to be the Monkees seems to be coming home. Soon they'll stop playing on their records. Wonder which one will have the video show in another 10 years? This is their big national tour, backed by almost-a-major-label IRS. Just possibly the beginning (or middle) or the end. (Greek Theater) Louis seems to have lost the 'do, and many of the Arthur Murray moves... in fact the entire band seemed extremely restrained. Probably IRS told them that opening for REM in front of ~6000 people was a BIG CHANCE. Too bad *they* didn't take any chances. This was a rather gutless trimmed down version of their wimpy Wolfgang's performance. Mostly material from their latest LP, with a smattering of tunes from ``16 Tambourines'', and a smoking closing version of the Easybeats ``Sorry'' (from their first EP). With each show they smooth out another edge. I can't really label them as selling out, since this is what I think they've wanted to do all along... too bad it's not as interesting to me as what they were doing on the way.