Robben Ford Discussion

[BlueRunner]

So how's Robben gonna' top a youthful shredder like Joe Bonamassa?, I wondered between their sets. Why of course ... by adding some incredible Wes Montgomery octave runs to a newer, jazzier arrangement of "Help The Poor." By pairing up with Mike Landau for some dead-on parallel runs on "Indianola." By cutting Andrew Ford loose on an almost Nashville-fied new arrangement of "Good Thing." And by bringing on a stronger and more dynamically-ranged voice than I've ever heard before! Wow.

The Canyon Club, in Agoura Hills, about 35 miles north of L.A. on the 101, is a multi-pesonalty supper club, dance club and bar that features every kind of music you can imagine. Last night was definitely Blues Night. Opening at around 7:00 p.m. was The Moxie Blues Band, a group of older guys from nearby Canyon Country (Michael Moxley on bass and vocals, Dave Asmussen on guitar, Carols Cavillo on drums and Chris Sabie on harp), who were clealy having a lot of fun. And also clearly have day gigs. What they lacked in chops, however, they made up for in enthusiam, and the one self-written tune they did ("I Like My Coffee Black") was a hit.

There are only so many hours in the day, so with all of the time I spend listening to Robben's stuff there's little left to catch up on other folks like Joe Bonamassa. I apologize that I'm not familiar with his set list (but he's got his own BBS on his web site, with detailed show reports). He's touring with Bogie Bowles on drums and Mark Epstein on bass, and they have definitely been putting in some time out behind the woodshed. Very, very tight. All three have great stage presence, and Bonamassa is one of the most engaging performers I've seen in a long time. He really connects with the audience. He also is a shredder of the first order. Clearly, his folks played a lot of Joe Satriani on the stereo when he was a child.

I took along my 25-year-old daughter, who lives and works in Africa, and is home for just a couple of weeks. The two of us were seated for dinner and the show at an eight-place table, joining two local guys who were big Robben Ford fans but had never heard Robben in person; a professional drummer and his wife; and a couple who had gone all over the country to hear Bonamassa, but had never even heard of Robben before! ("Is he any good?," she asked. "Just you wait," the other six of us said almost in unison. And by the way, she was NOT disappointed. Robben definitely added two more die-hard fans last night.)

The guitar guys and I could see Daved in the wings, restringing the legendary Tele'. But I warned our companions that the Tele' is very shy, and sometimes never comes out at all. Of course (and as PaulG learned the night before at SOhO Santa Barbara), the Tele' is back out!

Robben and crew (Gary Novak on drums, Andrew Ford on bass, Mike Landau on guitar) hit the stage running with "Over My Head." Then "Indianola." Next was "You're Gonna' Be Sorry," a demonstration of Robben's amazing skills as a rhythm guitarist, as Landau took a solo. Robben then introduced the band, and paid tribute to Freddie King as he launched into "Indianola." Landau took another great solo.

Daved came out, relieved Robben of the Les Paul Gold Top (with quite a wear mark on the top of the lower bout -- is this the mythic vintage Gold Top that Larry Carlton gave Robben?), and viola! The TELE', for "Don't Deny Your Love." Then came an arrangement of "Good Thing" that was so different that at first I didn't recognize it. Robben was in fullest and strongest voice for the song, and then turned solo duties over to Andrew Ford. (And just why do so few blues players let the other guys take solos? Are they afraid they'll get topped? A musician's musician like Robben never worries about that, and it makes for great shows.)

After that, Robben noted that "Mike Landau's going to take one, now," and stepped into the shadows on the side of the stage. Landau served up a wonderful vocal and guitar arrangment of Hendrix's "Up From The Skies." Imagine that Hendrix was still alive and still growing on guitar -- and had somehow also channeled Mose Alison's voice! As PaulG noted from the prior night, Landau literally wears down the pickup switch. Definitely the Master of the Stratocaster. Amazing.

Up next, a very jazzy arrangement of "Help The Poor," and then "Supernatural" to close out the set. As everyone stood to shout and applaud, Robben reintroduced the band, and called them up to center stage for a wonderful series of arms-around-each-other theatrical bows. The crowd wasn't about to let the band leave without an encore, however, so back they came to rock the house with "Lovin' Cup."

The house lights went up and the DJ music through the sound system went to "11." (This is definitely an ear-plug venue. Sorry to say, but whoever ran the board wasn't quite clear on the concept of balance, and the vocals were badly overdriven. It was interesting, however, that Robben and crew seemed to sense the problems with the P.A., and made adjustments from their own instrumetns and voices to compensate. Where Bonamassa's vocals got a little lost in the mush, both Robben and Mike Landau made themselves heard clearly and distinctly.) I went up to the stage and over the din slipped a note to Daved to simply say "Hi," and got a quick smile and thumb's-up before he had to turn back to the task of breaking down the equipment while all the while making sure no one in the house stage crew knocked over the Dumble set-up. They used to introduce James Brown as "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business," but we all know that the real hardest working man is Daved.

Those of you headed to Coach House tonight, or Mammoth Mountain over the weekend, are in for a real treat. Robben is bringing some great new musical twists to a set list we all love. Enjoy.
_________________
- BlueRunner

[BlueRunner]

Oh come on, B.R., proofread before you post. The second mention of "Indianola" should have read "Cannonball Shuffle." But then, you all knew that. (So actually, I was just testing you. Honest.)
_________________
- BlueRunner

[PaulG]

Nice review, BRunner! Sounds like an awesome show. Wow, 3 sets! You're an ironman!

[Blue Kind]

I was at the show last night and enjoyed it although Robben's set it could have been a little longer.
I'm a huge Joe Bonamasa fan. He has sat in many times with our band and played a few guest solos on our record. He has a blues side with a style that compliments Robben and a rock side ala "joe shredder". I did not enjoy last nights set as he mostly played his rock side and not much of his blues, soulful, building solo side. BB King found Joe and took him on the road when he was 12 years old, his background is heavily blues influenced. If you have never seen him play his own set you did not get a feel for what he can do. Check out his record "Blues Deluxe" and his new record has a good blues feel as well. If you get a chance to see him as a solo act do yourself a favor and check out the show, you will not be dissapointed, he also plays an unbelievable electric slide dobro. I also agree that his mix was bad as I could not hear his vocals, they were dry and believe it or not too much guitar.
On the other hand Robbens vocal was perfect as his voice sounded smooth and clear like cream butter, and his band mix was so much better. I loved the new view of older songs. I'm never dissapointed in a Robben show. Great show just a little short for my taste. It would have been cool to see Joe and Robben play a song together.

[PierreL]

Great reviews guys, thanks a lot.

[jdlwcec]

I'm a long-time fan of Robben's music (since 1984?) and have only recently gotten in touch with this board. Glad to have it available! I was able to download the set Robben played with Gregg Allman and Friends -- what a treat. Great description of the show with Bonamassa (I'm in Boulder, CO so I'll have to wait some more to see that pairing). The set list and band lineup sounds great. I did just see an all day show called Guitar Town in Copper Mountain Colorado that was fantastic with Joe Bonamassa, Sonny Landreth (any slide maniacs out there must see Sonny play) and Joe Satriani capped off the day with a supernatural show. I mention it because Robben played Guitar Town last year and definitely made some new fans. I definitely can't wait for him to come back to Boulder -- I need my Robben fix!!!! Peace.

[Daved]

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

[BlueRunner]

Many thanks to Daved for the info about the timing of the sets. A little follow-up: The Spazmatics are a hip-hop/dicso/whatever band. As my daughter and I entered the Club around 6:30 for dinner before the show we saw a sign that said "Dress Code Strictly Enforced." Huh? For a blues show? The crowd for Joe and Robben was nicely mixed -- all ages, all sorts of dress, from suits and ties to jeans and tee-shirts. And as nearly all of the crowd streamed back out into the parking lot as Daved and crew were rushing to break down the amps and drumset, my daughter and I stuck around to see what might come next. We hung out for another hour, as the DJ played 70's and 80's music with music vids on the various screens around the Club, and a ton of folks in the 20-24 age group (about three to one women to men) streamed in, dressed to the nines in club clothes that a guy like me only sees in reruns of "Sex and the City" episodes. It's been a long time since I've seen a Debbie Gibson music video. How about Paula Abdul? At one point I turned to my daughter and said, "I'm sorry your Mom and I didn't hunt down all of this stuff and burn it when you were little." She gave me a big grin and replied, "You don't understand, Dad. The Eighties will never die!"

One reason I wanted to hang out (aside from enjoying watching younger folks dance to the music from the 80's (and even 70's -- I actually enjoyed watching the video of the Jackson Five doing "I Want You Back") was that I was sort of fascinated by the Spazmatics' set-up. I don't usually go to joints featuring bands that have complicated record-scratching desks and electronic drumsets in their set-up. (Re the latter, maybe the drummer was a vegatarian, and doesn't like using real drums with real skin heads -- just what appeared to be plastic pizza pans with wires connected to a very complicated patch board behind his stool.) The bass and guitar and their amps set up quickly after Daved broke down Robben's set-up. What took a ton longer was a lot of apparently intricate adjustment of the scratch-tables, another station that appeared to have a lot of electronic gear that I think may have been for sampling, a couple of smoke machines, and a flashing disco-light set up.

Hey, I don't want to put down any of you who enjoy going out to clubs like this and dancing your hearts out to techno-pulsing arrangements of disco hits, while sipping cocktails made from strange-named vodkas that the bartenders actually brag have no taste. But let's face it, I'm a died in the wool "just plug your Strat or LP directly into your Pro Reverb or Bassman, hand me a glass of Maker's Mark bourbon, strait up, and let's BOOGIE" kind of guy. By 11:00 p.m. the place was packed with happy dancing metro-whatever youngsters, but the Spazmatics hadn't hit the stage. (Dang, Daved. Robben and crew could have done six or more additional tunes.) Watching the setting up was interesting, but both of us were less interested in whatever music might come from it, so we decided to hit the road.

That's when it got even weirder. As we emerged into the cool air out one side of the Club's big double entry doors, to our left coiling out around the building was a series of velvet ropes (honest -- I thought velvet ropes were just a movie cliche) holding a huge line of hundreds of party-dressed 20-somethings. Wow. I didn't know there were that many people who even lived in Agoura Hills, total, let alone that many young people staying up late on a Thursday night. Well, at least two of them got to go in as the result of our going out. Hope they enjoyed the Spazmatics.

In the end, I'm really glad we got down to the Canyon Club, but the next time Robben comes through both that venue and Santa Barbara's SOhO, it'll definitely be time to go back up to Santa Barbara.

One final thought: Moe's Alley, in Santa Cruz, features blues, reggae, disco, gospel, rockabilly, alternative folk, and even Klezmer. Except at Moe's, each genre gets its own night, all to itself. (Plus the sound system at Moe's is great, and the drinks are reasonable and include booze you can actually taste.) Robben comes through Moe's about once every three years. Start hitchhiking now, so you'll be there in time for his next one.
_________________
- BlueRunner

[jconstant]