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A fine evening. Houghton and Maby, for those of you not in the know, are the drummer and bass player in the original Joe Jackson band for the first three new-wave-era albums. The guitarist back in the day was Gary Sanford, but there was no guitarist in evidence this evening. It was a little offputtting when they played the early stuff because I know the arrangements back and forth (when they stuck to them, which they mostly did on the early stuff), and the missing guitar --- even though Sanford was no great shakes and mostly played rhythm --- was distracting. Another site said the he'd be recording with them, though.
I met a delightful not-such-a-geek named Chris — Joe Jackson shows are, um, geek-heavy — who was writing down the setlist. He was a Pirate fan and I asked him to send me a copy of the list.
"Steppin’ Out"
(solo)
"It’s Different for Girls"
(JJ/GM only)
"Too Tough"
"Citizen Sane"
"Another World"
"On Your Radio"
"Invisible Man"
(new song, rocked)
"Goin’ Downtown"
"Take It Like a Man"
"Love at First Light"
(new)
"Drunk Song"
(new)
"Rose Darling"
(Steely Dan cover)
"Dirty Martini"
"You Can’t Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)"
"One More Time"
(Encores)
"Inbetweenies"
(Ian Dury & the Blockheads cover)
"Is She Really Going Out With Him?"
(variation on the original arrangement)
"A Slow Song"
I wasn't sure which of some of the other songs were new. He started off awkwardly, not really able to keep his left hand going all the time as he improvised with his right. That's OK if you're Joe Jackson, because if you have Graham Maby on bass, you don't need a left hand. And the phrases and flourishes that he'd stab in with his right were sublime and soulful, always digging like a jazzman. Sometimes he'd drop out, and close his eyes for eight or so bars and let the rhythm section build the groove, and then he'd slam a new chord inversion down in the high treble and build some new phrasings there, suddenly turning the song into something else, and Maby's been with him long enough that he would be ready to follow his lead with a new syncopation or chord variation, or even a sudden modulation
His voice also wasn't sustaining notes initially, which you notice when he opens with something like "Stepping Out." By the time he hit his stride about a third of the way in, he confessed that he hadn't been too happy with his piano-playing to that point, that it was the first show of a brief tour, and that he and Houghton always are nervous at the start, but that Maby (big surprise) was a cool zen master.
Anyhow, he and they really settled in, with his left hand suddenly pounding out walking basslines and strides. "Invisible Man" was the best of the new music, along with "Dirty Martini" a New Orleans stomper.
He does this. He takes his band out on the road for short tours before recording, to try out new songs and new arrangements of old songs before finishing them in the studio. This is the second time I've caught him on such a tour, and the hit-missiness of it is part of the fun. When he came out for an encore, peeps yelled requests. ("'The Band Wore Blue Shirts'!" I tried, with the expected lack of luck.) One guy yelled "'Steppin' Out' with the bass!") That's how geeky Jackson fans can be. They request alternative arrangements of songs that have already been performed.
Anyhow, being as I was down center, one other thing that troubled me for the first third was, just as JJ appeared from the wings, Chris the Pirates fan whispers to me, "What do you think? Face lift?" And, damned if Jackson's forehead wasn't completely without lines, his cherubic cheeks evidencing none of the sag of his neck, and the corners of his mouth curling into a permanent smile, which remained even after as he opened his mouth up for long broad notes. By the second or third song, I was thinking that I wouldn't be surprised to hear he's been cast as the Joker in an upcoming Batman film. Curse Chris for distracting me so.
Jackson as a composer is strong, and his playing and improvising can carry even a weak composition, but in latter years, the pop song concepts just having been there. A song called "Drunk Song" imagining the mindset of a guy who can't stop, he'll introduce as if it's a clever concept, but it's not so much.
Or a song he didn't perform from Night and Day II (and how lame was it to name an album that?) with a refrain chanting "Just because your're paranoid, doesn't mean they're not out to getcha!" Thanks, Joe, I never heard it put that way. Or "This is a song about waking up from a fun evening, looking at your lover next to you, and thinking... "What's your name?" Ha, ha, you card.
But that's picking nits. His band is still great. Maby is fantastic, and simultaneously looks like an old athlete and a comic actor up there. Houghton looks like... a middle aged guy who has been out of the business for a while. He played really well, considering that he had to cover for the absence of Sue Hadjoopolis, the five-foot Greek dervish of a percussionist Jackson has had for twenty years and has helped define Jackson's sound from Night and Day on, bringing in that Latin jazz flava). Dave used a fully electronic kit, which again provided an initial distraction for me, as I was down center, but heard no sound emanating from the drum set, but only out of the house system. That passed, though.
The three of them fell naturally into three-part harmonies, and revisiting the songs and from the first three albums made it worth the trip alone. New material, as well as hearing the jazzier pop forced into an arrangement for the small combo, well, that was gravy.
Again, this was the first stop on his mini-tour, and I got tickets on 24-hour notice. I cribbed the HTML from his site and so I bring you his tour schedule:
| June - US Dates | show date | place | venue | Ticket Sale Date | | 12 | Washington, DC | 9:30 Club | May 4 | | 13 | Glenside, PA | Keswick
Theatre | March 24 | | 15 | Chicago, IL | Vic Theatre | April 1 | | 16 | St. Paul, MN | Fitzgerald Theatre | April 1 | | 19 | Portland, OR | Aladdin Theatre | April 7 | | 20 | Seattle, WA | Moore Theatre | April 7 | | 22 | Saratoga, CA | The Garden Theatre | April 16 | | 23 | Hollywood, CA | Avalon | April 7 | | 25 | Salt Lake City, UT | Red Butte Garden Amphitheater | May 6 - members
May 20 - public | | 28 | Somerville, MA | Somerville Theatre | April 21 | | 29 | New York, NY | Town Hall theatre | April 7 | | 30 | New York, NY | Town Hall theatre | April 14 |
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I couldn't find if we restarted the concert thread over here. Mebbe I should've looked harder.
Charlene was on a bill last night headlined by Brooklyn-based 
