I am surprised no one has written about any of the recent Jeff Beck shows. I caught last Saturday's at the Port Chester and was absolutely blown away. First of all the setlist:
01-Loaded
02-Nine
03-You Know You Know
04-Hammerhead
05-Morning Dew
06-Why Give It Away
07-A Change Is Gonna Come
08-Yemin
09-White Tiled Floor
10-Good Bye Pork Pie Hat - Brush With The Blues
11-You Never Know
12-Little Wing
13-Superstition
14-Big Block
15-A Day In The Life
16-Rollin' and Tumblin'
17-Introductions
18-Encore Call
19-Danny Boy
20-Going Down
Thanks to the addition of Jimmy Hall's incredible pipes, the setlist is quite a bit different from the norm of the past few years. Jeff's covers included the Mahavishnu Orchestra, Jimi, the Beatles, Stevie Wonder, the Grateful Dead and Sam Cooke. I am not sure who other living guitar player could follow that breadth of material with a rousing "Danny Boy". We were treated to one great musical experience after another.
I really like the combination of Tal Wilkenfeld on bass and Vinnie Colaiuta drums, but Rhonda Smith and Jonathan Joseph certainly pulled their weight. Nicolas Meier basically played rhythm guitar but there was some nice interactions with him and Beck.
I know a couple of hard core Jeff fans who were disappointed in the distraction of vocals, but I felt Jimmy added a fresh perspective to the mix. Jeff was spot on as usual and there was no shortage of Beck pyrotechnics. It was show that had me yearning for more, and I was happy to score a ticket this afternoon to Friday's Red Bank show.
Everyone with tickets to upcoming shows is in for a treat. If you are on the fence, grab tickets before they are gone, since it seems most of his shows are in smaller venues are are selling out.
I saw this line-up of the band on tv and wow I was blown away. The show might have been called Jeff Beck Live In Tokyo. I was loving the guitar heavy versions of the Jeff Beck tunes. No visible keyboardist and the 2nd guitarist played Jeff's rhythms freeing Jeff up to play the overdubbed fills off the albums.
It was absolutely beautiful.
I have appreciated the different line-ups over the years and this was upper tier rivaling the recent versions of the band. The band with Beth Hart on vocals was sweet. She sang all the Rod Stewart vocals from that era of the JBG and I really dug it, but this show had all the focus on Jeff's wizardry. Merlin's got nothing on Mr. Beck! Thanx for posting.
Thanks for the review Alan (and greetings and salutations BTW!). I did not realize Jeff did so many covers; can't wait for Morning Dew especially.
I think I've had my tix since last June since it was cancelled and reset in Sept. My Groupon has yellowed!
I'm going sunday, can't wait!
I saw Mr. Beck do a very similar set this past summer when he opened for ZZ Top. He is such an incredible talent and although he looks like Nigel Tufnel from Spinal Tap, (except for some unbelievable arm muscles!) he still kills it. I remember reading an interview with Clapton where they asked him, "What's it like to be the best guitar player in the world," he replied, "I don't know, I'll ask Jeff Beck when I see him!"
One slight correction: He doesn't cover the Grateful Dead. If you're referring to Morning Dew, Jeff did the song, with Rod Stewart on vocals, on his early album Truth and it wasn't a Dead song, but a cover with the original being done by a woman named Bonnie Dobson and I'm pretty sure Beck was covering the original and not the Dead's cover of it.
I saw this line-up of the band on tv and wow I was blown away. The show might have been called Jeff Beck Live In Tokyo. I was loving the guitar heavy versions of the Jeff Beck tunes. No visible keyboardist and the 2nd guitarist played Jeff's rhythms freeing Jeff up to play the overdubbed fills off the albums.
It was absolutely beautiful.
I have appreciated the different line-ups over the years and this was upper tier rivaling the recent versions of the band. The band with Beth Hart on vocals was sweet. She sang all the Rod Stewart vocals from that era of the JBG and I really dug it, but this show had all the focus on Jeff's wizardry. Merlin's got nothing on Mr. Beck! Thanx for posting.
I saw the same tv broadcast. I believe it was AXS or the Palladia channel. It was outstanding! I thought the way the second guitarist was utilized was pretty cool. At times he played rhythm parts and others actual keyboard parts via the guitar. Odd not seeing Tony on the drums, however, as he's been with Beck for a very long time. But his replacement is fantastic as well.
