 Next Article | Previous Article | |
| Back |
by Seth Rogovoy
NORTH ADAMS
A new and improved version of The Band helped celebrate a new and improved version of the Night Shift Cafe at Mass MoCA on Saturday night with an encore performance that underlined the group's longstanding theme, made explicit in its version of the Chuck Willis tune, ``(I Don't Want To) Hang Up My Rock 'n' Roll Shoes.''
In one form or another, the core members of The Band - Levon Helm, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson - have been playing rock 'n' roll together for nearly my entire lifetime (hint: I turn 36 in a few weeks). And while the effects of the years and the rock 'n' roll life style on the members of The Band is obvious to anyone looking at them, if you close your eyes and listen there is little clue if any that these guys were very nearly contemporaries of Elvis Presley.
Through sheer determination and obvious love of the music, the members of The Band have defied adversity - including the sad suicide of bandmate Richard Manuel and the estrangement of guitarist and chief songwriter Robbie Robertson - and refused to hang up their rock 'n' roll shoes.
At times along the way - even as late as their unsteady performance here last September - this seemed a questionable decision. Instead of burning out, to paraphrase Neil Young, in past years it seemed like the group was succumbing to rust.
Apparently the group has discovered a rust inhibitor, because judging by its concert on Saturday night, The Band is far from being consigned to the junk heap of rock 'n' roll.
On some dozen-plus numbers, The Band displayed hints of its greatness of old. Levon Helm, who seemed under the weather in September, was downright spunky on Saturday, and his Arkansas twang was as twangy as ever. New pianist Richard Bell may have been the night's biggest surprise - his barrelhouse boogie-rock was all over the map, dancing circles around replacement guitarist Jim Weider's sharply efficient licks.
The group pulled out a few surprises from their catalog of great songs, including ``Caledonia Mission,'' into which Rick Danko breathed new life. Bassist Danko also attacked ``Long Black Veil,'' moving over to guitar on these numbers while utility infielder/drummer Randy Ciarlante filled in on bass.
On ``Crazy Mama,'' surprisingly the only tune they played from the new album, ``High On the Hog,'' Danko played guitar and Helm played bass while Ciarlante covered on drums. All this instrumental switching around went further to capture the spirit of The Band in its heyday, when every musician was a multi-instrumentalist and you never knew who was going to be playing what on any given song.
Boston's Charlie Chesterman and his three-piece backup group, The Legendary Motorbikes, warmed up the crowd with a lively, 45-minute set of Chesterman's Byrds- and Beatles-influenced, original rock 'n' roll. ``Sexy Rickenbacker'' featured, well, Chesterman's sexy Rickenbacker guitar; ``Hello Judy'' was an ``Exile on Main Street''-era Rolling Stones-ish country-rocker. Chesterman threw in a rendition of ``Tiger Tiger,'' a concert favorite by his old band, Scruffy the Cat, as well as the old standard ``I'm Ready,'' an apt choice since it was covered by The Band on that group's oldies album, ``Moondog Matinee.''
The Night Shift itself was spiffed up, with a fresh coat of paint, a new entryway, a coat-check room, indoor bathrooms, and new and better- situated food and bar setups. As a work in progress, the Night Shift seems each time out to adapt itself to better enhancing the concertgoing experience.
(This review originally appeared in the Berkshire Eagle on Feb. 27, 1996. Copyright Seth Rogovoy 1996. All rights reserved.)
| Next Article | Previous Article | |
| Back |
