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Post by Dan on Jun 12, 2010 16:35:00 GMT -5
Nice decent videos from last night's ( 6/11/10) Jones Beach Show.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kR3oc2tPV3s [/youtube]
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Post by Nonfatman on Jun 12, 2010 19:43:16 GMT -5
Part 1 of Nonfatman's Jones Beach review- The setting:Okay, so it was a cool and breezy evening when we arrived at the parking lot of the Jones Beach amphitheater at about 7:00 p.m. We were immediately struck by the relative dearth of cars one hour before show time, whereas in the past, the lot has been jammed full. That was certainly the case at the 40th Anniversary show two years ago, but those were pre-recession times I suppose, and Peter Frampton was the support act, a bigger draw than Procul Harum. Anyway, I was with Icecreamman, his brother Al, Mrs. Nonfatman and Gillian, a Brit who has been living in New York for 30 years. She has just joined here as thamesg, so let's welcome Jill to the board! I think she may be interested in visiting the Snug Bar at the Poet and The Painter Pub, for a chat with Quizz very soon! Once we arrived, we were able to track down the Long Island contingent of the Jethro Tull Meet-Up group. Barry G. was hosting a friendly tailgate party, with brew, burgers and fixin's on him, and we also met our friend, Jim Haddad, the founder of the aforesaid JT Meet-up Group, and some people we know quite well, Ken and Scott Green, Dave Sarney from Jersey, Dave Pincus, Kim and Laura Massaro, and quite a few others. The beer was flowing, the food was fired up on the hibachis, rare Tull boots blared forth and hearty laughs resounded from our group of 20 or 25 Tull enthusiasts. A great time, and many thanks go out to Barry & Company! You guys rock!!! So we tail-gated until about 8:10 p.m., then started heading over to the theater, and just as we were entering at 8:15 p.m., we heard the first bars of Procul's opening song, a bad sign right off the bat, because ordinarily the support band starts at 8:00 p.m. But last night there were not many people in the place by 8:00, and perhaps that is why Procul Harum started late. Procul Harum, with Matt Pegg on bass and a strong-voiced Gary Brooker, played at least 7 0r 8 songs, and did not leave the stage until about 9:00 p.m., which is 15 minutes later than usual for the support act. That meant Tull weren't getting on anytime before 9:30, and as it turned out, they didn't take the stage until 9:37, so I knew right off the bat it was going to be a short set, but I figured it would last right up until 11:00 p.m., which is usually the case at this venue. It didn't -- they ended about 10:53 p.m., with enough time to do another song, but they did not, so the whole Tull set was only 75-80 minutes, and consisted of only twelve songs. So, I paid $96.00 apiece (not $92.00, as I earlier said) for two ninth row center seats, for a total of $192.00, for my wife and I to see Tull perform a paltry 12 songs. The setlist: Nothing is Easy Beggar's Farm New Day Yesterday King Henry's Madrigal Songs From the Wood Bouree Hare in the Wine Cup Change of Horses My God Budapest Aqualung Locomotive Breath with a few bars of Teacher for an encore. And that was it. The youtube poster was incorrect, because he omitted Beggars Farm, which was played, and included Jack in the Green, which was not played. Compare this to the Boca Raton show, which consisted of all of the above 12 songs, plus Cross Eyed Mary, Jack in the Green and Eurology, for a total of 15 songs. Stayed tuned for Part 2 of Nonfatman's Jones Beach review -- The Performance Jeff
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Post by Nonfatman on Jun 13, 2010 9:16:20 GMT -5
Part 2 of Nonfatman's Jones Beach review - The performance:
Okay, so we checked the time that Tull took the stage, and it was 9:37 p.m., when usually at Jones Beach they start at just about 9:20 p.m. When they started, I looked back and was aghast to see that the upper tier was completely deserted, and the second tier only sparsely occupied.
I'm pretty sure that I have seen Tull at Jones Beach all of the eight or nine times that they have played there since 1988, and I have seen plenty of other shows there as well, but I have never seen it so empty for any band. The venue holds 15,000 people, and the other night it was only half-full. While Tull don't always draw a full house at this large venue, it is usually at least three-quarters full, and for the 40th anniversary it was a packed house for the sold-out show.
So I was a little depressed to see that, but then Tull came out with a blazing Nothing is Easy, with strong singing by Ian, and I thought, 'well, okay, maybe this will be a great night.' I continued feeling very good about the show through Beggar's Farm and A New Day Yesterday, and even for Songs From the Wood, Ian was singing in tune. But it was during SFTW that his voice began to fail him, even though for the most part he carried that one off too. The band sounded good as always, perhaps not quite as tight as I have heard in the past and I wished that Martin's guitar had been turned up for some of those songs. On King Henry's Madrigal, I thought that there were some mistakes, as it seemed choppy to me.
For Bouree, Ian brought out a surprise guest, yet another hot young female violinist, and one who I hadn't seen or heard of before, Melissa Mikarta (?), who someone later said was part of the Calliandra Quartet. After Bouree, they played Hare in the Wine Cup, which Ian sung passably well, but I realized I just don't like it that much as a Jethro Tull song. This was followed by Change of Horses, but what I did not understand was why the female violinist did not play on this one too. The Tull version minus the violinist was just not as good as the version played last year during the solo tour, and Ian had a lot of difficulty with the vocals. Tough one for him to sing.
It should be noted that Ian barely talked to the crowd, there were few jokes or song introductions, although he was animiated in his stage performance, as was Martin and even John O'Hara, who normally does very little on the stage. The crowd did not seem that into the show either, perhaps because there was an overall lack of energy and rather subdued feeling due to the light attendance. This was exactly the opposite of the packed-to-the-gills venue for their 40th anniversary show two summers ago, where people were jumping up, pumping their fists and dancing in the aisles to a red hot Tull.
Of course, since this was Tull, it was a professional and competent performance, there were great moments as always and the singing was on balance, okay. However, I have to say that his voice was schizophrenic. On some songs it was excellent, on others it was terrible. Also, whereas in the past I have noticed that his singing starts weak and improves as the night goes along, on this night it seemed that the reverse was true, as he began with some good vocal power, but struggled in the middle and latter portion of the show.
For instance, Budapest was a vocal disaster, and he struggled mightily on Aqualung as well. Aqualung was the 11th song of the set, a set that felt very, very familiar to me, with the exception of the two new ones, all of these songs have been played year after year after year. I love Budapest, and up until the other night, had not tired of hearing them playing it in concert, but enough already! He can't sing it that well. They should do To Cry you a Song instead, for "crying" out loud because that's one that hasn't been played in over 30 years and I believe Ian could sing that one well, especially with all the instrumental breaks.
The vocal problems were present on My God, too, which was played with a somewhat different arrangement of Martin's guitar part, but I realized that I had just heard this song just too many times in concert. The last four or five songs of the set, starting with My God, just had an overly familiar feel, and the band seemed to be going through the motions to complete the show. It felt very hurried to me.
After an Aqualung that was weakly sung and sub-par (except for Martin) there was the false goodbye followed by the predictable Locomotive Breath encore, which was song extremely well by Ian, and featured a few bars of Teacher but not enough. Why is he always able to sing LB so well? Does he take a steroid shot or use a nebulizer during the break? Why can't he sing all of the songs as well as that?
The show ended at 10:53 p.m., a full seven minutes before 11:00 p.m. and enough time for another song. The shows at JB always go right up until the 11:00 p.m. mark, but this one fell a little short, and I wondered why, since Jack in the Green, Cross-eyed Mary and Eurology had been cut, resulting in a measly 12-song set, for which a lot of people paid a lot of money. Surely they could have played at least one of those.
My overall grade for this show is a C+. Not a bad Tull show, but not a particularly memorable one either....except for the shockingly light attendance. Ian is still able to do a credible Tull show at age 63, which is pretty amazing.
Procul Harum, by the way, were very loud (the way I like it) and good, but they started late and played about 8 songs for 45-50 minutes, which in my book is too long. Thirty minutes is enough for the support act. Conquistodor, Whiter Shade of Pale and three others would have been enough. People came to see Tull, not PH, and Ian should never allow the opening band to cut into the Tull set. Had I known that this was going to be only 12 Tull songs, nine of which I have heard a million times before, I may not have gone to the show, although it is always nice to see them and hang out with friends. The tailgate party was fun, and I liked seeing and talking to everyone. That's the main reason I am going tonight....to be with friends, have a beer or two and to meet TM for the first time!
My wife is ready to kill me just about now, so I'd better go.....
Jeff
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Post by tootull on Jun 13, 2010 15:36:32 GMT -5
Thank you, Jeff. Enjoyed the read.
"takes research" I'm throwing this quote out there, awaiting someone else to pull the chain. Well grab the old bog-handle, hold your breath and light a candle.
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