Concert Review: All Hail Beck!

Wow.

I caught Jeff Beck at the Scranton, Pa. Cultural Center last night on the first night of what looks like a short U.S. tour, and it was incredible.  Just absolutely mind-blowing.

At this point, after 30 years of noodling on the guitar and being a fan of guitar-playing, I’ve seen just about every shredder, solo guitar artist and rock guitar innovator it’s been possible to see in my lifetime.  Yet last night I saw and heard things I’ve never seen or heard done with a guitar.  It was my first time seeing Jeff.  It was great.

Not sure if I can put it into words, but here are some impressions.

1.  It seemed to me like Jeff didn’t “operate” his guitar like it was a guitar.  I mean, he was playing a guitar and if you play guitar you could identify with what he was doing.  But even though his signal was pretty raw- or dry-sounding, it seemed like the guitar was just a tool for making music.

Okay, that’s what all guitars are for.  But what do you call guitar-playing that’s full of melody and interesting emotional twists and noises, but doesn’t involve scales, chords or any of that typical guitar-playing stuff?  Whatever you call it, that’s what he was doing.

2.  I’ve never seen anyone use a whammy bar – a conventional Fender whammy (as far as I know), not a Floyd Rose – like that.  He manipulated the bar at least five different ways:  sometimes whacking it, sometimes making it vibrate, sometimes with his palm, sometimes with different fingers – and that doesn’t even count the things he did with the bridge but WITHOUT the whammy.  Just total mastery (see #3).

3.  How about pushing the whammy down to certain notes – meaning RIGHT TO certain notes, not dive-bombing down to the notes like everyone else does.  I looked at Jeff doing this hard enough that my eyes could have popped out of my sockets, but no, I don’t know how the hell he did it.  All I can do is offer this uninsightful explanation: incredible talent and years of practice.

4.  He played an entire melody using a slide with his RIGHT HAND.  That’s right.  He held the guitar with his left hand, on the fingerboard, basically deadening the strings.  The slide he held in his right hand and with it played an entire melody, no mistakes, over the pickguard.

5.  I wish I could describe the expressive guitar noises he made and how he made them, but I can’t really do it.  I typed things like “robot noises” and “a flock of birds taking off all at once” but you have to see and hear him to get as close to understanding these “expressions” as it’s possible for anyone to get.  You can hear this stuff on recordings, but seeing and hearing it live is something else entirely.

6.  He did all this with just his guitar and amp:  He had a few effects (five, maybe?), but outside of a warbly chorus he kicked on a few times, they were not used for “effect.”

Those are some guitar-specific impressions of a guitar player – though after watching Jeff last night, I’m not sure if it’s legal to call myself that anymore, if you know what I mean (and I know you do).

Overall I was just blown away by the experience.  How do you know when a show has been great?  When 90+ minutes have gone by and it feels like only 15.

Jeff was [insert your own superlative adjectives here].

Vinnie Colaiuta was amazing and, according to a buddy who was there and who (allegedly) is a drummer, equaled Jeff in command of his instrument (for a little fun reading about Vinnie, check out the story from Steve Vai below).

Jason Rebello played keyboards and held up his end no problem.

Bassist Tal Wilkenfeld, 23 years young (I guessed 21 before looking it up), was good though not mic’ed so well, and I loved how she found a groove in every tune, even Peter Gunn.  Her smile lit up the stage from time to time too, which was great and added to the whole good, unpretentious, “the music is king” vibe.

The show was so good, I immediately wanted to do it again.  I wasn’t exhausted by volume or slightly disappointed by anything, as I sometimes am at shows.  I felt like being at the best ride at Disney:  Come out the ride’s exit, and immediately run to the back of the line to do it again.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t happening last night but I did scour the Internet this morning looking for a Beck show or ticket in New York.  Looks like there is a show there, but apparently not everyone in New York City has suffered in the recession….

The bottom line is I love and hate this kind of show.  I love it for all of the above reasons.  I hate it because I kick myself that I waited so long – I wasted so many years when I could’ve seen Jeff Beck but didn’t.  Don’t make the mistake I did:  Go see him if you can!

> Tour dates on Jeff’s website.

Notable

> Jeff seemed genuinely blown away and, at times, humbled by the crowd response.  Very cool.

> His gear was a surprise: a Suhr into a Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier head.

I’m kidding.

It was his trusty white Strat with the rosewood fingerboard into a Marshall smallbox 50-watt head and Marshall-looking cab (no badge), mics on three speakers. His pedalboard was on stage, but was covered up until the last possible second with no way to see what was in it while uncovered. But again, he didn’t use it much. His tone was Woody all the way.

> Jeff might be the only guy I’ve heard whose Strat-Marshall tone doesn’t derivative of Jimi or SRV or any Strat tone for that matter.

> At the start of the encore, Tal and Jeff played Tal’s bass – at the same time!

> Davy Knowles, a younger guy who opened the show with an acoustic set, played well, sang well and was refreshingly sober and nice. A good choice.

> Here’s what Jimmy Page said about Jeff at Jeff’s recent Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction: “Jeff’s style is totally unorthodox to the way anyone was taught. He keeps getting better and better and better.”

> Here’s the Vai story about Vinnie, courtesy of the at-times-questionable Wikipedia:

He’s one of the most amazing sight-readers that ever existed on the instrument. One day we were in a Frank [Zappa] rehearsal, this was early ’80s, and Frank brought in this piece of music called “Mo ‘N Herb’s Vacation.” Just unbelievably complex. All the drums were written out, just like “The Black Page” except even more complex. There were these runs of like 17 over 3 and every drumhead is notated differently. And there were a whole bunch of people there, I think [Terry] Bozzio was there.

Vinnie had this piece of music on the stand to his right. To his left he had another music stand with a plate of sushi on it, okay? Now the tempo of the piece was very slow, like “The Black Page.” And then the first riff came in, [mimics bizarre Zappa-esque drum rhythm patterns] with all these choking of cymbals, and hi-hat, ruffs, spinning of rototoms and all this crazy stuff. And I saw Vinnie reading this thing. Now, Vinnie has this habit of pushing his glasses up with the middle finger of his right hand. Well I saw him look at this one bar of music, it was the last bar of music on the page. He started to play it as he was turning the page with one hand, and then once the page was turned he continued playing the riff with his right hand, as he reached over with his left hand, grabbed a piece of sushi and put it in his mouth, continued the riff with his left hand and feet, pushed his glasses up, and then played the remaining part of the bar.

It was the sickest thing I have ever seen. Frank threw his music up in the air. Bozzio turned around and walked away. I just started laughing.

Category: Fender, Jeff Beck, Live Shows, Marshall, Steve Vai, Strat