Concert Review: Jethro Tull at Jones Beach
Saturday night found green_kohai and I at Jones Beach for a classic rock double bill of Jethro Tull and Peter Frampton.
The man who wrote "Hotel California."
Tull are celebrating 40 years of playing the flute on one foot. That fact was highlighted by rear-cyclorama projections that featured photographs and press clippings from throughout the band's long career. Ian Anderson and the boys opened with "My Sunday Feeling" from This Was, setting the pace for a set that highlighted the band's early years. Familiar and not-so-familiar cuts from This Was, Stand Up and Benefit followed, with one or two excursions into the "recent" stuff from 1972, 1978 and even 1987!
The set had a blues focus (the "This Was" stuff), mixed in with pastoral prog from the '70s and one '80s cut: "Farm on the Freeway" from the '80s record Crest of a Knave. Some songs were played as flute-led instrumentals ("Sossity, You're a Woman") and others ("Dharma for One") were instrumentals to begin with, allowing Ian to pace the set and rest his pipes. Our favorite aquaculturist was in pretty decent voice, considering both his age and the fact that he's never really recovered from a 1980s throat surgery (I became a Tull fan in '89 (on Rock Island so Ian's "later voice" never bothers me.) At one point, Ian took pains to point out that "We Used to Know" (from Stand Up, released in 1969 was the origin of the chord sequence, rhythm and guitar solo of "Hotel California" by the Eagles. ("It wasn't a rip-off, it was homage, sort of like this homage Rolex I'm wearing right now!").
The band (augmented by a string quartet from New England Conservatory on some tracks) was astonishingly tight, playing with energy and verve under the faint Jones Beach stars. The musical highlight of the show was "Bouree", opening with the quartet playing the original Bach work to show the contrast with Jethro Tull's jazz-flute madness. Other highlights included "A New Day Yesterday" and a "good chunk" (Ian's phrase) from the 42-minute epic "Thick as a Brick." Little Milton would have approved.
The evening ended with the one-two punch of "Aqualung" and "Locomotive Breath"--the only songs played from their most famous album. Considering that a) I'm not a huge Aqualung fan and b) I saw them play most of the record at a 2004 show in Ottawa, the absence of "Cross-Eyed Mary" and "My God" from the set list was not a huge deal. But I was so glad that the boys played "Heavy Horses."
Frampton came on promptly at 7:30 (to the strains of the Doctor Who theme!) and broke into a brace of Motown classics before breaking out the familiar hits from Frampton Comes Alive. The genial guitarist interspersed the '70s hits with unexpected cover tunes: "Black Hole Sun" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Frampton and his band were very much in tune with their near-capacity audience--the best crowd I've seen at JB in a while. Highlights included the "holy Trinity" of "Baby I Love Your Way", "Show Me the Way" and a thunderous rendition of "Do You Feel (Like We Do)". The famous talk-box solo included the bass player's room number and an instruction to Frampton-philes to "bring the beer." Of course, no address was provided, and we all wanted to see Tull anyway.
OK. Today, Judas Priest. Review to follow.
All for now.
P
The man who wrote "Hotel California."
Tull are celebrating 40 years of playing the flute on one foot. That fact was highlighted by rear-cyclorama projections that featured photographs and press clippings from throughout the band's long career. Ian Anderson and the boys opened with "My Sunday Feeling" from This Was, setting the pace for a set that highlighted the band's early years. Familiar and not-so-familiar cuts from This Was, Stand Up and Benefit followed, with one or two excursions into the "recent" stuff from 1972, 1978 and even 1987!
The set had a blues focus (the "This Was" stuff), mixed in with pastoral prog from the '70s and one '80s cut: "Farm on the Freeway" from the '80s record Crest of a Knave. Some songs were played as flute-led instrumentals ("Sossity, You're a Woman") and others ("Dharma for One") were instrumentals to begin with, allowing Ian to pace the set and rest his pipes. Our favorite aquaculturist was in pretty decent voice, considering both his age and the fact that he's never really recovered from a 1980s throat surgery (I became a Tull fan in '89 (on Rock Island so Ian's "later voice" never bothers me.) At one point, Ian took pains to point out that "We Used to Know" (from Stand Up, released in 1969 was the origin of the chord sequence, rhythm and guitar solo of "Hotel California" by the Eagles. ("It wasn't a rip-off, it was homage, sort of like this homage Rolex I'm wearing right now!").
The band (augmented by a string quartet from New England Conservatory on some tracks) was astonishingly tight, playing with energy and verve under the faint Jones Beach stars. The musical highlight of the show was "Bouree", opening with the quartet playing the original Bach work to show the contrast with Jethro Tull's jazz-flute madness. Other highlights included "A New Day Yesterday" and a "good chunk" (Ian's phrase) from the 42-minute epic "Thick as a Brick." Little Milton would have approved.
The evening ended with the one-two punch of "Aqualung" and "Locomotive Breath"--the only songs played from their most famous album. Considering that a) I'm not a huge Aqualung fan and b) I saw them play most of the record at a 2004 show in Ottawa, the absence of "Cross-Eyed Mary" and "My God" from the set list was not a huge deal. But I was so glad that the boys played "Heavy Horses."
Frampton came on promptly at 7:30 (to the strains of the Doctor Who theme!) and broke into a brace of Motown classics before breaking out the familiar hits from Frampton Comes Alive. The genial guitarist interspersed the '70s hits with unexpected cover tunes: "Black Hole Sun" and "While My Guitar Gently Weeps." Frampton and his band were very much in tune with their near-capacity audience--the best crowd I've seen at JB in a while. Highlights included the "holy Trinity" of "Baby I Love Your Way", "Show Me the Way" and a thunderous rendition of "Do You Feel (Like We Do)". The famous talk-box solo included the bass player's room number and an instruction to Frampton-philes to "bring the beer." Of course, no address was provided, and we all wanted to see Tull anyway.
OK. Today, Judas Priest. Review to follow.
All for now.
P