Over the weekend I had the wonderful privilege of talking with Dennis Landau, Editor of "Living In The Past Magazine".
Here is his review from Saturday Night at Long Beach, Terrace Theater.
FROM LONG BEACH AIRPORT: Take Lakewood Boulevard south to the San Diego Freeway (405).
Take the San Diego Freeway (405) north to the Long Beach Freeway (710).
Go south on the Long Beach Freeway to the Downtown Exits. (710 then becomes Shoreline Drive).
Follow Shoreline Drive to Linden Avenue and into the parking lot, or as advised by directional signage.Okey Dokey. Here Goes.
Ian Anderson concert 10.20.12 Long Beach, CA. Review working title:
Shitting Bricks. Sure. I was scared.
The thought of missing a tour, this tour, for the first time in 40 years was unfathomable.
I was in New York as this tour of Ian Anderson performing back-to-back Bricks
in their entirety worked its way up the Eastern Seaboard.
I had already scheduled a wedding, a song at a gig in Manhattan,
and business meetings upstate, so it should have been a slam-dunk to be at the Beacon show.
Nursing a broken rib and a malady of the excremental kind forced an unscheduled exam of a digital nature.
Nothing to do with a camera or a computer mind you.
To the west I returned knowing that I had missed something special.
The tour would dally in Southern California and head up to Salt Lake City with no show near my location in the North.
The final decision to see the show wasn't made until noon, for a 3pm flight. Enter magic.
A confluence of information and support from old friends in the right places at the right time
transported me, fed me, and put me in perfect attendance as the stage
at the Terrace Theatre was receiving a final sweeping and dusting by these men in overcoats.
It was the old sight gag that Jethro Tull had used many times to disguise
the members of the band as they readied their instruments.
With a projection screen stage rear that Ian would appear as possibly a warehouse manager prior to his entrance,
I remembered his "Tullavision" debut from 1976 on Tull's stadium tour,
Shea Stadium for this young lad at the time.
The visuals started with Ian as counselor, psychiatrist, and Gerald Bostock's appointment at the doctor's office.
Don't think Gerry got a word in edgewise as Dr. Ian assumed his problems
came from his childhood and not being understood by his parents. Hmm.
That being said, Thick As A Brick, the original, Brick 1 as it is called for short,
started as it has for forty years, Ian singing the first line, Really don't mind if you sit this one out.
Thanks, but I will gladly sit in on this one, and I will even be quiet until the end,
keeping any electronic fiddling to a minimum.
This also reminded me of early tours in which I wanted no nuances to escape me,
no words to be missed, my memories to be sharp.
A six piece band again, Ian, John O'Hara on Hammond Organ and accordion, David Goodier on bass,
Scott Hammond on drums, Wunderkind Florian Opahle on Gibson Electric Guitar
and the most wonderful addition of a theatrically inclined singer, Ryan O'Donnell.
Not a band billed as Jethro Tull but close your eyes and it might as well have been.
Indeed, Doane Perry was in attendance and I wondered about his thoughts as the younger Scott Hammond
had his go with the masterful drum passages from the true "middle bit" of Thick as a Brick.
Being situated stage right on a slightly austere kit, Scott was balanced by John O'Hara's equally sparse keys stage left.
The other four musicians were fairly choreographed center stage with their bits shifting attention between the two.
Most notably for me, was the avant garde, rather disjointed "God is an overwhelming responsibility"
"Babies wearing nylons" passage, with the pregnant pauses emphasized
by the freeze framing statue-like poses of the players.
A faux Skyping of Anna Phoebe with child and her violin was brilliant,
an addition that was obviously different from the band that originally recorded and performed Brick 1 in 1972.
The fact that the original cast of this album, save Ian Anderson,
was not onstage is almost not worth mentioning, but employing another lead vocalist is.
I admit some reservations of my own being a purist in some respects, but as the show progressed I lost them.
Ian's voice has, for many years, been the subject of many a fan's concern.
To this day, from those who have never seen Tull live, Ian's voice
may even rub some the wrong way, as being over the top, or just "don't like it" for one reason or another.
Having seen the band more times than I can now count, I know for a fact
that if he is rested he can still pull a vocal rabbit out of his hat. Last night, he did just that.
The vocals between Ian and Ryan seemed to be well balanced
switching between foreground and backround, visually as well as sonically.
Let's face it, fan of the band or not, Brick is an epic continuous piece,
important to its genre, and historical in nature.
To have it re-created in a live setting after 40 years is nothing less than an achievement.
The performance and detail paid homage to the Tullian period 1971 to 1973.
The running gag onscreen of the frogman, actually slogging his way on his journey to the sea, sent chills through me.
Brick 2 faired very well after the intermission.
I am sure many members of the audience were not at all familiar
with this sequel except for passages that, well, seemed familiar.
As the sequel did start I wondered, briefly, how the audience would receive it,
whether there might be boredom with something they hadn't heard before,
but that thought vanished as this band bared its teeth with as much ferocity
as it did in the first set and the audience sounded appreciative.
Brick 2 is so well written, so well organized as Gerald Bostock's life and possibilities are explored with so much relevancy.
Economics, religion, morality… its all there with the information age touches both in the music and the message.
The End Games of "Mulberry Walk: Confessional". My God it really is brilliant, brought to life and reality.
I was particularly moved by Ian's seriousness as he repeated his demonstration
of Slap and Tickle, “under bedclothes, underhand.
He seemed to look to the audience for signs of understanding, empathy and of asking “do you get it?”
We were taken to the climax of all the possible outcomes of Bostock's
existence from the banal, to the desperate, to the death.
"Locomotive Breath" rumbled across the stage as the Encore,
after rolling credits appeared on the screen like a slick Rockumentary.
The identity of the Frogman is revealed. The rabbit is out of the hat.
The acompanying tour programme was bought from Tom Lynch,
Concessionaire Extraordinaire our bottoms both no worse for wear.
Gerald’s young life only imagined, through Ian's pen and flute, now well examined.
Thanks for reading!
Dennis Landau