Iron Horse
March 26, 1996
From: dsissman@albany.net (Dan Sissman)
The Iron Horse is a fantastic venue for acoustic bands. Unfortunately, the Ox was not playing a bass fiddle in an "unplugged" set. Quite the opposite. Although the mixing did improve somewhat through the course of the evening, the sound was sort of muddy throughout, and the vocals were barely audible. Joni's Butterfly played an energetic opening set, the first song of which was Entwistle's "Made in Japan". Their set ran from about 7:00 until about 7:40. The Entwistle Band took the stage at around 8:45. Godfrey Townsend had some technical trouble with his guitar and amp between "Bridges" and "The Real Me". In an attempt to keep the audience entertained while the techies were handling the problem, Steve Luongo told a joke about a ventriloquistic Indian, a farmer, and several animals. Between technical hassles and generally crappy sound, Entwistle seemed to be eager to put this performance to bed. While this set could have been a bit longer, it was certainly not without musical quality. The band gave good performances all around, and outstanding ones on "Trick", "The Real Me", "Boris", and "Shakin'". The band finished around 10:10.
Subject: 3/26 JAE show
Well, I finally saw JAE live and it was great. The mix, as usual, was imperfect, but the rest of the show was just unbelievable.
Opening Act: Joni's Butterfly, as usual. They were pretty good; though I had a Tiger-stadium seat which prevented me from seeing the guitarist without excessive craning of the neck. The stage was also tiny, and the JAE band's equipment was already on the stage (including Steve Luongo's 15-piece (I may be off by a couple) drum kit). As a result, the singer had to do his gen-x 90's style dancing in a space of about 5'x5'. The drummer was so-so, while the bassist was quite good. Anyway, I wish 'em well. Aside: after the JAE show, outside, someone asked where the name of the band comes from. Apparently, Joni's Butterfly is a brand name of a women's vibrator. End aside.
There was then an hour-long break; finally, at about 8:45, the show started.
Band: John Entwistle, bass, Steve Luongo, drums, Godfrey Townsend, guitar, and Alan St. Jon, kybds.
[Set list given here, identical to dsissman's report above]
Annotated set list:
Heaven and Hell: pretty much sounded the same as at Leeds; the lyrics were hard to hear, as on most non-"Rock" songs.
Had Enough: really rocked; great song.
John then exchanged his Buzzard for the 8-string bass for the late-70's Who songs:
Success Story: John looked rather disillusioned/unhappy during this song. hMMM. Memorable quote of the day #1: "We're only using half of our equipment". Thankfully, add I.
Trick of the Light: Absolutely superb. In the Bass Player interview, John says, (paraphrased from memory) "Let's just say I know damn well how to make any band sound like the Who". Given the right drummer, he undoubtedly can. Trick of the Light was the first really great song of the show. Exit 8-string, return Buzzard.
Bridges under the Water: Alan took vocals, and John slowed down; during this song, he actually sometimes had time to pull his hand away from the bass and wipe his forehead. The song sounded almost reggae-ish.
At this point there was a rather extended break during which Godfrey Townsend was trying to fix something about his guitar set-up; John noted that a $50000 stage rig can break down because of a bad $2 lead; when the break was taking longer and longer, and people started screaming out more and more obscure songs (someone actually screamed, Doctor Doctor), Steve told a joke, a really bad joke which I'll repeat here, since I love really bad jokes:
"Once an Indian was walking along a road, and a farmer was driving and offered to pick him up. "Where are you goin'?" the farmer asked. -- "To town" -- "Well, I'm not goin' to town today, but I'm gonna go there in the morning, but you can spend the night at my place, and in the morning we'll go to town." -- "OK," the Indian said. When they got to the farm, the farmer said to the Indian, go sleep in the barn. The Indian was insulted but slept there anyway, and decided in the morning to get the farmer back. The farmer came to the barn in the morning and asked the Indian how his night was. The Indian said, "Well, I couldn't really sleep much, since your horse kept talkin' to me." -- "I didn't know my horse could talk!" At this point, the Indian threw his voice and the horse 'said', "mornin' farmer". "Not only that," continued the Indian, "but your cows can talk, too," and threw his voice and one of the cows 'said' "Mooornin' farmer". "Not only that," continued the Indian, "but you sheep can talk, too." -- "Well, don't you believe a word they said!"
By this time, unbelievably, the guitar was still not fixed, and Godfrey said, "You should have added a couple more animals."
Finally, they got to "The Real Me", which was the usual lightning-quick performance from John.
Love Doesn't Last: forgettable, I thought.
Boris the Spider: Here, not being able to hear the lyrics was a bit more than annoying, and there was an extra instrumental section which included for the most part, alternating between two notes--odd, and not your usual solo.
Life After Love: pretty exciting.
My Wife: simply superb.
Last Song: I think this was my favorite on the studio "Rock", yet, oddly, it didn't translate at all well to the stage.
Summertime Blues: Included John's usual basso profundo lines, and was very good. see note at end.
Encore:
Shakin' All Over: Godfrey seemed at home on this one; and the five-minute-or-so drum/bass interplay was mindblowing. If they don't release this on a live album, it will be a true shame.
Autograph session: huge line; I got my L@L booklet signed and the Who Sell Out booklet, on the back cover, under the Rotosound symbol. I'd also brought a couple of other things but they were limiting it to two items.
Just a great show, hope to see a live album!
Final note: as I was waiting for my bus, I went into a convenience store and heard, much to my displeasure, a country version of Summertime blues, which seemed to be copying the Who's version at least as much as the original; complete with pedal steel and all. Ugh.
--LP.
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