The Wailers Almost Play "Survival" at Brooklyn Bowl

With temperatures in the teens, the Wailers stopped by Brooklyn Bowl on Thursday to heat things up by playing Survival in its entirety.  But like Snoop Dogg, Arrested Development, Band of Horses, and Deer Tick before them, they missed a song.  Even though the record was played in order, the Wailers neglected its fourth track, "Babylon System."  Survival is my favorite Bob Marley & the Wailers LP, so that was disappointing, but the show was redeemed by an encore that went over 20 minutes longer than the set.

We arrived just in time for the opening act, the Flatbush-based Top Shotta Band featuring Screechy Dan on vocals.  His voice was similar to Half Pint's, and the four-piece horn section were dressed in suits and driving caps, looking like former members of a failed third-wave ska band.  Surely enough, online research confirmed the trumpet player and bandleader as DJ Mush 1 of the Slackers.  They were a decent appetizer, with highlights being "Million Tons of Music" despite a sloppy trumpet solo, and the tune that followed.  The set was probably one song too long, however, with Screechy Dan's out-of-tune warbling during closer "There's a Moon Out Tonight" identifying the source of the adjective in his moniker.

The Wailers started things off around 9:35 with an instrumental intro before getting into Survival with "So Much Trouble in the World."  After the live brass of Top Shotta, it was a little sad to see no horns onstage.  Thankfully, to compensate on keys was Keith Sterling of Peter Tosh's Word, Sound, & Power.  Aston "Family Man" Barrett is the only original Wailer still in the band, and was honored last year with Bass Player magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award.  Barrett is not a flashy player, but an excellent composer.  The bass is the backbone of the songs, so he performed the tunes without much deviation from the originals, and the band took his lead.  This is understandable because they are in fact, the Wailers' songs, but without Peter, Bunny, or Bob, the current lineup seems more like a really solid cover band.

I don't envy lead singer Danglin, who has the biggest shoes to fill.  He has a good voice, but it's not Marley's.  That wasn't necessarily to be expected though, considering the only people I've heard capable of approximating it are Bob's sons, Ziggy and Stephen, and strangely enough, Xavier Rudd.  More than the vocals though, is the task of substituting for perhaps the most electrifying frontman of all time.  He had the hopping from foot to foot down, and he at least had dreads, but just inserting "Brooklyn" into the lyrics didn't cut it.

The highlights were the unexpected moments: the live fade out in "Ride Natty Ride" or the addition of a new keyboard sound in "Ambush in the Night."  At the completion of "Wake Up & Live," Danglin incorrectly announced, "Everybody, that was the Survival album in its entirety."  Just 44 minutes after taking the stage, they retreated up the staircase to the right.  The show was billed as "Playing Survival and More," so we clapped until we got more.

Danglin and guitarist Audley Chisholm returned to the stage first.  Leading the encore off with "Redemption Song."  How predictable, right?  Wrong.  They started with a bit of "Time Will Tell" first, and that's how the encore went: I'd think they were on the last song, and then they'd pull another tune out.  Damn, Bob Marley had some great songs.  The hits kept coming, and you could tell the band was having more fun outside the constraints of an album.  Danglin took some liberties with the lyrics on "Stir It Up," drawing attention to all the ladies in the crowd, and having them sing back to him, even the girl behind me who quite possibly had the worst singing voice ever.  Chisholm played a stylish solo in "Jamming," and we all waved our hands from side to side for "Three Little Birds," and did the same with one finger for "One Love."  As Family Man removed his bass from his neck, I figured that was the end of the show.  But he was just swapping it with his son to take the reins at the organ for "Exodus."  As the band jammed along, Danglin started a chant of "Party on!" which was cheesy, but was absolved when it led into "Punky Reggae Party" and back into "Exodus."  Oddly enough, it was this medley, the only one Barrett didn't play bass on, that was my favorite performance of the night.

Within seconds of the show's end, the DJ at the back of the room started spinning.  It was none other than Biz Markie, selecting singles like "Pass the Dutchie," "Fly Like an Eagle," and what seemed a silly choice considering we'd just seen it performed live, "Three Little Birds."  I realized it was a masterstroke, however, when I entered the restroom to hear every person in the line of urinals singing along.  Damn, Bob Marley had some great songs.

There's no denying album shows are in vogue in the live music world.  They're a way to sell tickets to a fan base content to stay at home and listen to their mp3s, where they can always count on hearing their favorite song.  What I like about them is the enforcement of the idea as an album as a collective piece of art.  There are two downsides to this format of show, however:

1. When a song is accidentally or intentionally left out, it embraces the iPod shuffle/Pandora/ADD culture we subsist in, leaving us to wonder, "Why did that song not make the cut?"  Even if you go to a concert for the guarantee of hearing that song, there is no guarantee.  When something is advertised as one thing and you get another, there is an inherent disappointment.

2. The element of surprise is lost.  We know what's coming next, so we can only get that excited about it.  How great is it when you're at a show and you're wondering what they'll play, and then they spring your favorite tune on you?  To counter this, some bands are performing full albums, but folding them into their sets like Dave Matthews Band or Jimmie's Chicken Shack, with mixed results.

My point: If album shows continue to be a popular feature of the live music scene, you might want to have a fact-checker on hand, whether you play the album in order or not. "Babylon System" isn't my favorite song on Survival, "Lodi Dodi" isn't my favorite on Doggystyle, and "U" isn't my favorite on 3 Years, 5 Months, & 2 Days in the Life Of..., but they are all great songs that I had expected to hear.

THE WAILERS - 01.24.13 - BROOKLYN BOWL (1 hour, 52 minutes)

SET -
Intro* / So Much Trouble in the World / Zimbabwe / Top Rankin' / Survival / Africa Unite / One Drop / Ride Natty Ride / Ambush in the Night / Wake Up & Live

ENCORE -
Time Will Tell > Redemption Song / Roots, Rock, Reggae / I Shot the Sheriff / Is This Love / Stir It Up / Jamming / Could You Be Loved / Three Little Birds / One Love / Exodus > Punky Reggae Party > Exodus

Xavier Rudd Returns to Irving Plaza After Sandy

During the last weekend of October, as Hurricane Sandy approached New York, several events were cancelled preemptively. School days, the final night of Everyone Orchestra's three-night stand at Sullivan Hall, the Halloween parade. Even the NYC Marathon would be revoked. While these cancellations mean nothing in the grand scheme of things, as so many people are still without homes after the storm, it is excellent when the desire to satisfy fans pulls through, and events are rescheduled. Xavier Rudd more than made up for his cancelled October 28th show at Iriving Plaza last night.

While Yeshe was to perform back in October, mbira player Chris Berry, frontman of world music group Panjea, opened this go-round. He played five jazzy songs on the Zimbabwean thumb piano, including "Leave It," a song so new "we're not supposed to be playing it here tonight." He was accompanied by a skilled drummer named Abdul (Sorry, I didn't catch the full name.), who was able to change time signatures with such ease that a wide grin would frequently erupt from his face. Berry could improve lyrically and vocally, but the electrified mbira is such a unique sound that it forgives his shortcomings. "I shoulda played guitar, but I played this thing," he admitted, giving us all a lesson in how to pronounce the name: "Mmm...beer. Ahh."

A little before 9:15, Xavier Rudd took the stage to chants of "Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi!" Taking a seat behind a fortress of didgeridoos, chimes, and drums, he jumped right in with a 9-minute rendition of "Lioness Eye," the opening track from his latest release, Spirit Bird. Rudd is the epitome of the one-man band. With all available extremities playing his set-up of surrounding instruments, it appears as if he's a man strapped into a machine, forced to do its bidding. It is only when Rudd lifts his head back in splendor to sing to the heavens that you realize that the machine isn't controlling him; he's controlling it. He truly is a marvel to watch. Moving stage right to play some tunes on lap steel, he kept his limbs no less busy, stomping his gnarly left foot on a percussion box, controlling his guitar tone on pedals with his right, and blowing into a harmonica held around his neck in between spurts of vocals and didgeridoo.

 

Rudd didn't speak much in between songs until after he finished "Follow the Sun," the new album's single. "This seems like a gentle Monday in New York City. Can I share a story with you?" From a haze of quality-smelling marijuana, yelps of approval from the crowd. He explained that the didgeridoo is naturally hollowed out by termites, and is actually called a yidaki (Didgeridoo is just an onomatopoeia established by the English.), after the Aboriginal tribesman who discovered it. He continued, "It's the oldest instrument in the world. It's 60,000 years old or somewhere thereabouts. Not to the day, obviously." He told the story of how he went to the Arnhem Land, a section of Australia that the English were never able to fully conquer (despite setting up mines and consequently, bottle shops to introduce alcohol to a culture that had never experienced it. Cue whistles from a stupid drunk girl.), and was made an honorary member of the tribe by one of Yidaki's descendents. This descendent had a profound effect on Rudd, greatly shaping his playing style. Shortly after the man died, Xavier was performing "Messages" and the man's spirit emerged in its middle as a new song. Rudd has played the song the same way since, and last night was no exception.

He dedicated "Full Circle" to the Sea Shepherd organization, which had a table set up by the entrance. Someone in the crowd shouted, "Thanks for coming back, baby!" Raising his hand to the sky, Rudd replied, "No worries, baby." "Let Me Be" had the crowd dancing, and just as I was realizing how much Xavier's voice reminded me of Bob Marley's, he started the "woy yoy yoy" chant from "Buffalo Soldier." Unfortunately, he turned over the vocal duties to his roadie, so we never really got to hear him at full Bob potential, but I guess it was a pretty sweet reward for the guy who had to continually switch out yidakis all night.

During the encore break, the sounds of an amplified preacher began seeping out of the PA, signalling the start of "Prosper," which naturally led into "Bow Down," as it does on Spirit Bird. Rudd followed that with the album's title track, which culminated in the crowd softly singing along quite beautifully. It was a shining moment for the crowd, which had been too talkative at times during the set, and it was easily my favorite performance of the night. With boomerang held high over his head, Xavier ended the show with "A Poem," a call to action against global warming, which likely caused the very storm that tried to keep him away.

XAVIER RUDD – 12.03.12 – IRVING PLAZA (2 hours, 1 minute)

SET –

Lioness Eye / Fortune Teller / Solace / Come Let Go / Food in the Belly / The Reasons We Were Blessed / 3 Roads / White Moth (tease) > Follow the Sun / Messages / Better People / Full Circle / Let Me Be > Buffalo Soldier / Culture Bleeding

ENCORE –

Prosper > Bow Down / Spirit Bird / A Poem