Robben Ford Discussion

[TotallyObsessed]

I just got back from seeing Robben at the Coach House. This was the first time I'd seen him live and he blew me away! Was anyone else at the show?

[rainmkr63]

I was at the Coach House Friday night, this was my 7th time seeing Robben live. He is playing better then ever! The first time I saw RF was in 1987 at GIT, I was there 87 to 88. I did not know very much about him up until then, that introduction turned me on to being a life long fan. Ever since I have bought everything that he has put out CD or DVD usually the day they go on sale, but I only have the first instructional DVD.

His playing has influenced me a lot in my music. In 1992 I got a divorce, out went the wife and in came the amp into the living room. After work I would play along with the first Blue line disk I learned almost all the guitar parts of that disk, I have dissected most of his stuff. I am not necessarily a casual fan.

The Coach House has great sound maybe the best that I have experienced with Robben. I got used to the short sets and expect it now, I could watch and listen to him play for 4 + hours but most people don’t have that type of attention span. This set was a good 1 ½ hours long so that was cool. Greg Mathieson tore it up, he gets that B3 screaming, Jon Lords like with an in-depth understanding of music.

Set list:

1. Over my head
2. Indianola
3. the way you treated me
4. keep on running
5. cannonball shuffle ( my favorite song on the new one BIG sound out of the les Paul )
6. Don’t deny your love
7. good thing ( close to the end there is a nice Bass solo then RF comes back in with this abstract volume controlled reference to Harrison’s “within you with out you” very cool )
8. The millers son
9. help the poor ( fantastic long version, I think he has played this song differently every time I have seen him )
10. it don’t make sense
11. lovin cup
12. supernatural


I know about the red light tirade and the drunks shouting songs from the audience, but there was a few things missed or left out. When someone from the audience yelled out “Play Talk to your daughter” RF said something like that was a long time ago we don’t remember that one. I thought that was funny because they had just finished up Help the poor from the same disk. He also said that they will be recording that in Paris for an unplugged DVD , sounds cool to me. There are 8 or more CDs Robben Ford has released since Talk to your daughter, I think with Jing chi and all there are 12 + disks GET SOME OF THOSE THERE GREAT TOO!!!!!!

Later
Rob

[roadwarriorfortheblues]

Nice show review Rob ! Thanks

Maybe he was kidding about the unplugged DVD ????
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Travelling by train of thought

[rainmkr63]

I don’t think he was kidding. He said they will be doing a different version of “TTYD” an unplugged version. So there seems to be a DVD project on the horizon, maybe all unplugged maybe not.

Later
Rob

[TotallyObsessed]

Haha yeah I posted something here about the TTYD thing. He said something along the lines of how that was a long time ago and how they've moved on. That Les Paul he was playing on was incredible! It's almost 50 years old!! I asked Dave about it and he said it was a '57, a gift from Larry Carlton.

Remember when Robben called out that guy who was recording the show?
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-Danny

[BlueRunner]

rainmkr63: Thanks for the great review! The set list is pretty close to Thursday night's at the Canyon Club, except that on Thursday they didn't do "It Don't Make Sense." Wish I'd heard what Robben, Mike, Gary and Andrew are doing with that wonderful Willie Dixon-penned tune these days. (Maybe the folks at Coach House gave Robben enough time to stretch out -- see Daved's posts following my review of the Canyon Club gig about the truncation of the set to make way for late-night 80's dance music.)

And a note to TotallyObsessed: Thanks for the heads-up re Shari Puorto and her band. We went up to the Deer Lodge in Ojai yesterday afternoon to hear her, and take in some great BBQ. Her bass player, Dave Abercrombie, is as good as you'd said. She stepped aside while he did a wonderful arrangement of "Folsom Prison Blues." As for Puorto herself, anyone who can actually pull off "Proud Mary" after all of these years without sounding like a wedding band gets my vote. I had a chance to talk with her between sets, and I asked about Friday night at the Coach House. Not only did she have a great time and get knocked off her musical feet listening to Robben and crew, but she added, "And you know, he's a REALLY nice guy."

Info about Puorto at http://mysite.verizon.net/res0paiw/ I hope she comes back up this way again.
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- BlueRunner

[TotallyObsessed]

I'm glad you enjoyed the band! That bassist was something else!
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-Danny

[rainmkr63]

Greg was especially great on “It don’t make sense” probably his most outside playing from the night, very spacey version. I liked the bass player from the opening act the rest of the band seemed generic to me. Text book blues band great looking woman singer, good guitar player who looked like James Taylor did in 1971.

Rob

[TotallyObsessed]

I thought he kind of looked like Johnny Depp from Pirates of the Caribbean!
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-Danny

[PierreL]

Recording an unplugged DVD in Paris ? Is there any date scheduled for a Paris gig yet ?