Post by bjornvanderhoff on Jul 9, 2006 6:32:37 GMT
Last week at the Whisky a Go Go I saw one of the best two act bills I’ve seen in a long time. The L.A. Arthur Lee Benefit Concert with Lee's former backing band Baby Lemonade assisted by Johnny Echols and other original members of Love.
Co-founder of Love, Johnny Echols, also played with the opening act Vince and the Invincebles. A highlight of the night was when Willie Chambers, lead vocalist of the Chambers Brothers sat in with Vince and The Invincebles and brought the house down.
Baby Lemonade performed the Arthur Lee material as can only be done by accomplished musicians who have played all the nuances of those compositions many times on tour Throughout the US, UK and Europe. It was moving.
Rusty Squeezebox sings some of those songs perfectly, and the drummer Daddy-o Green took no prisoners, as did the original Love drummer Michael Stuart who sat in on My Little Red Book and Can't Explain. I came to see Vince and the Invincebles and the original guys from Love, Johnny and Michael playing again together, but now I’m a fan of Baby Lemonade too.
The Invincebles have some fine original songs. They also played Can’t Explain, and an arrangement of Bummer in The Summer with Johnny Echols that was excellent but the vocals were buried.
The monitors had plenty of headroom to raise the vocals. I stood behind the sound guy while he fumbled around trying to locate the unlabeled lead voice pot. He referred to headphones to hunt for the mics. Colored tape on each mike stand would have been a better way. The board engineer gets a C- for not putting the vocals up more, not adding some low end eq, and not adding any reverb to the vocals.
I heard the Invincebles had some problems and missed sound check, which is not a good sign. Don’t know what happened there or why Vince demolished several microphones and stands. He and the Invincebles were bounding about the stage like molecules when they collided but kept playing from the stage floor during Long Tall Sally sung little Richard style by Willie Chambers.
Their cranked Marshalls sounded awesome and Baby Lemonade was the perfect contrast. The whole bill deserves to play to a much larger venue than the Whisky, like the Greek Theatre.
Co-founder of Love, Johnny Echols, also played with the opening act Vince and the Invincebles. A highlight of the night was when Willie Chambers, lead vocalist of the Chambers Brothers sat in with Vince and The Invincebles and brought the house down.
Baby Lemonade performed the Arthur Lee material as can only be done by accomplished musicians who have played all the nuances of those compositions many times on tour Throughout the US, UK and Europe. It was moving.
Rusty Squeezebox sings some of those songs perfectly, and the drummer Daddy-o Green took no prisoners, as did the original Love drummer Michael Stuart who sat in on My Little Red Book and Can't Explain. I came to see Vince and the Invincebles and the original guys from Love, Johnny and Michael playing again together, but now I’m a fan of Baby Lemonade too.
The Invincebles have some fine original songs. They also played Can’t Explain, and an arrangement of Bummer in The Summer with Johnny Echols that was excellent but the vocals were buried.
The monitors had plenty of headroom to raise the vocals. I stood behind the sound guy while he fumbled around trying to locate the unlabeled lead voice pot. He referred to headphones to hunt for the mics. Colored tape on each mike stand would have been a better way. The board engineer gets a C- for not putting the vocals up more, not adding some low end eq, and not adding any reverb to the vocals.
I heard the Invincebles had some problems and missed sound check, which is not a good sign. Don’t know what happened there or why Vince demolished several microphones and stands. He and the Invincebles were bounding about the stage like molecules when they collided but kept playing from the stage floor during Long Tall Sally sung little Richard style by Willie Chambers.
Their cranked Marshalls sounded awesome and Baby Lemonade was the perfect contrast. The whole bill deserves to play to a much larger venue than the Whisky, like the Greek Theatre.