Review: Robert Randolph @ Borderline

Robert Randolph & the Family Band did not fail to impress on Friday night. There was no support band so they arrived onstage at around 8:30, played a blistering 90 minute set then headed off to get some rest before the big Hard Rock Calling gig in Hyde Park the following afternoon.

The band were tight and funky, the songs they played ranging from their own compositions to the Doobie Brothers and even included an upbeat tribute to Bo Diddley, who died recently. Robert himself played both his trademark pedal steel guitar, often turbocharged using a wah pedal, giving him a Hendrix-like tone, and a couple of regular 6-string axes.

Three of us went, three of us loved the music, three of us would definitely see the band perform again...

...but not one of us is willing to ever set foot inside Borderline again. It's actually a testament to the quality of the music that we stayed past the first song. While the venue has air-conditioning, the powers that be chose to keep it turned off for the most part. It was so hot and humid in the basement bar that we all felt like we were going to die down there. The management seriously need to look at fixing the airflow in there. The music to one side, Friday night was a truly horrible experience.

To make matters worse, when I got up the following morning I found that after standing awkwardly in that heat for a couple of hours my back had gone out. To say that it wrecked my weekend would be an understatement as I could barely get around for the following two days. I'm still in quite a lot of pain today, thank you very much Mean Fiddler Group.

The only positive spin that I can put on it is that as I was couch-ridden I got to listen to Jason Mraz's new album a couple more times, which is growing on me slowly. I also discovered that I had Placebo's last release, "Meds", but hadn't got round to listening to it. I love Placebo. Balls-to-the-wall goth rock. "Meds" seems to be something of a departure in style (I need to listen to it again) but I have no doubt that in the fullness of time I'll like it.

Three Week Look Ahead

As regulars around here will have noticed, there's not really been much actual progress on The Project lately. I won't rehash all the stuff that's been going on, but suffice to say that the planets are starting to align and soon I should be ready for another big push.

July 1 is a major project milestone, so I think it's worth looking forward to that date to see what's on the horizon. As June passes into July, not only will the UK be celebrating the half-way mark of the annual Wimbledon tennis tournament (and moaning about how all our players were knocked out in the first round) but I'll be celebrating the mid-point of The Project. Exciting times! It's all downhill from here!

The in-laws will be with us for a couple more weeks. After we've had our farewell hugs and dried our tears they'll board the big shiny bird headed west and I'll start my new 'commuter-friendly' job, creating shedloads of free time. As soon as possible I'm hoping to hook up with some folks who messaged me recently via the Partysounds website. The plan is that we'll drink some beer, shake the tree and see what falls out.

On the concert front, having started off the Summer 2008 run with Rufus Wainwright, we've got Robert Randolph lined up at the end of June, then Dolly Parton, Jason Mraz and Macy Gray in July. Still unconfirmed, but possible depending on other commitments are Little Feat (IndigO2, July 11) and Drive By Truckers (Electric Ballroom, August 4). Oh, and while I think about it, I've been getting a lot of hits lately from people looking for Oli Brown information and my review of his band's debut album "Open Road". I won't be able to make the show, but for those of you in London who can, Oli is supporting The Blue Oyster Cult at the Kentish Town Forum TOMORROW NIGHT (June 11). Go along and check him out!

So, for the next few weeks you, The Reader, can expect general banter, the occasional iPod DJ entry and general project water-treading. After that, though, watch out! It's full speed ahead!

Concert Alert: Robert Randolph @ Borderline

Just the other day I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't want to go pay VIP ticket prices to see the upcoming Eric Clapton show in Hyde Park. When I heard that Robert Randolph and Jason Mraz had been added to the artist roster it made me mad as it felt like the promoters were TORTURING ME!

This morning I heard that Robert Randolph is playing a side gig at Borderline on Manette Street, just off Charing Cross Road! It's not clear whether The Family Band will be with him or not. The concert info just says 'plus guests'. Hey, maybe Eric'll sit in?

Credit card out, logged onto Ticketmaster, pair of tickets purchased!

Side rant:
Ticket price is £13.50... but...
Booking fee is £3.25 per ticket...
Postage is £4.95 (and the tickets will doubtless be delivered at a time we won't be home so we'll have to chase around London trying to find them)

All up price comes out at £38.45, or £19 plus change per ticket. So, on a pair of tickets you end up paying 42% over and above face value. If you just bought 1 ticket you'd be upcharged 60%. Consumer rip-off? I think so!

Any road up...

We don't have many concerts lined up this summer due to work and study constraints. So far our schedule looks like:

12 April: Oli Brown Band
3 June: Rufus Wainwright
27 June: Robert Randolph
5 July: Dolly Parton

Also thinking about going to the Skinny Molly gig (organised by Pete Feenstra) on 3 May.

Assuming it's still on (!) I plan on going to the blues jam at The Old Explorer pub, Oxford Circus, tonight. If it's good I'll make it a regular Thursday night gig.

Stalled...

Okay, so here's the skinny. I was way too knackered to attend the Old Explorer blues jam last Thursday. I'm going to make every effort to go this week, though, assuming it's still running. Watch this space.

Practice and progress were non-existent last week. The weekend was no different. I have temporarily stalled... hopefully not for long. I can't afford to lose momentum like this or I'll end up going backwards. Unfortunately I don't see myself getting moving again until tomorrow. Too much to do about the loft to bring it back to 'habitable'. All plans for the weekend slipped away when we heard that some friends of ours who live in Paris were over. We were out most of the time, drinking... [hic]. No regrets, though. Good friends, good times. Weather-wise the weekend was f**ked up! Friday was a beautiful Summer's day, Saturday was Spring-like if a little damp. By Sunday it was snowing!

In other news, I've ordered a micro-recorder that works through my iPod. I keep getting song ideas but before I can play them they disappear from my head. Think mini-dictaphone for the mp3 generation. I can't imagine that the quality will be great, given the low-low price tag, but hey, I figured it was worth trying. If I can just capture one or two song ideas it'll be worth it. It should be possible to use it for recording guitar, too. Have to wait and see. I often jot down lyrics in a notebook, but by the time I get round to reviewing them the musical concept has evaporated so I'm back to square one. Oh, the device is called an Xtrememac MicroMemo if you want to google it. I'll let you know how well it works.

Other musical news...

Going to see the Oli Brown Band play on Saturday. Looking forward to that. They're showcasing their debut album, which is being released by the German outfit Ruf Records.

Bought a couple of albums on a whim. One by Matt Nathanson, entitled "Beneath These Fireworks" and one by The Nadas, "Listen Through The Static". Both were artists I discovered through Pandora Radio. I got them on the strength of a couple of songs so we'll have to see whether the rest of the tracks are up to much.

Finally, I found out on Friday that the upcoming Clapton gig in Hyde Park not only has The Man Himself playing, along with Sheryl Crow and John Mayer, but now Robert Randolph & The Family Band AND Jason Mraz have been added to the roll.

I just don't like listening to concerts in places like Hyde Park. Bad acoustics and you end up a mile and a half from the stage, wondering what the hell's going on most of the time... needless to say that even if VIP seats up front were still available, they'd be price prohibitive.

Having said that, since buying "Unclassified" I now desperately want to see Robert Randolph perform live and I'm not afraid to admit a bit of a closet Mraz-a-fan. I mostly dig his solo acoustic stuff, but I've seen him play in Houston and London and his shows are a guaranteed fun time.

A Good Beer Buzz In The Morning...

Overall this was a good weekend for the advancement of the Fillmore Five Project.

There was one disheartening moment, where my husband, Tim, pointed out, as he does from time to time, that no matter how good I'm getting at jamming, I still can't play a single song from start to finish. It really bugs me when he says that. I don't know why I let it get to me so much. I realise that he's trying to be supportive in his own way, making me focus on the finished product. What he doesn't get is how fragile my musical ego is. I'm running on high right now and for once have faith that I can succeed. When he comes up with stuff like that it makes me lose faith in myself and my motivation crashes.

I've realised recently that I really need the context of a band to make me pull out all the stops. If I'm playing rhythm guitar then hey, anyone can learn a strumming pattern, right? If I wanted to I could sit there and strum out a whole song. The reason I don't do that on a regular basis is that it's just not where I'm headed. If I'm recording a song or playing live with other people then sure, I'll play the chord progression, over and over.

The flip side is that playing lead isn't about 'playing a whole song', it's about adding colour and maybe a solo, which I can do. Hey, maybe one day I'll do the power trio thing with just me, a bassist and a drummer, but not right now.

The one positive from the discussion was that Tim's said that if I write a couple of acoustic songs then he's willing to stand up at an open mic and sing them with me. Now that's something I could work towards.

On balance, the positive stuff outweighed the negatives over the weekend. Fired up by the need to prove I can play a song all the way through I turned around and learnt Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" on acoustic and a decent one guitar version of The Rolling Stones' "Jumping Jack Flash" on electric. I swear Red Dog (my shiny new Les Paul) is possessed. If I plug it in and try to play stuff using my head it comes out okay, but not great. If I disengage my brain and just let the thing play itself it totally ROCKS! Duane... is that you in there? Maybe I should hold a seance... not an exorcism, though. Oh, no. Whoever's in there has work to do! Which reminds me, as I'm trying to immerse myself in music I rented the Jack Black movie "Tenacious D", which focussed on the search for the satanic Pick of Destiny. Not exactly Oscar-winning material, though the intro sequence was cool!

By random chance I ran into the bass/guitar guy from last Friday night whilst online (frikkin' small Wide World of the Web). Had a chat about music etc. Turns out that he doesn't play in a band as such, but with people he grew up with. Sounded like they were looking to start gigging, playing Led Zep covers and so on. I let him know that if he ever runs across intermediate level players who want to get together and jam then to point them towards me. Who knows, eh? Explore all avenues.

Having nearly dropped Red a couple of times last week when the freebie guitar strap that came with it popped off mid-twang I decided to get a new, better strap. It came in the mail on Friday. I also found a top tip online about DIY strap locks. Rather than spend money on expensive locking mechanisms which don't always work and which can damage your axe, simply purchase 2 bottles of Grolsch... the kind with the wired cap.

Buy beer, drink beer (optional, but a bonus) then pull the rubber gaskets off the cap. Simply put your strap on then lock it into place using the gaskets. Sounds daft, but it really seems to work.
Whilst online I found a cool website with videos demonstrating how to play various classic rock riffs (click here). Had a go at The Eagles "Life in the Fast Lane" intro. It's actually a pretty simple run but the addition of flourishes like the string bends and the muted 'chug-chug' sound after the repeat of the first lick make it sound really cool. I think I'll be spending some time practicing that one as it's immediately identifiable.

Last but not least, I got my first Robert Randolph & the Family Band CD, called "Unclassified". As I understand it, it's their first studio album. To me it's a seems like a good introduction. Their sound is mainly groove based which lends itself to jamming. The first three tracks and one or two towards the end are standout pieces. Some of the middle tracks are a bit too 'safe' for my taste, but hey, it's an album that seems to be about laying it down every which way. Variety is always good. I'd definitely go check them out live if they ever came to town and consider buying other albums.

Well, it's Monday and Tim's studying for his next exam tomorrow so I guess I'll be off to the open mic at the Spice of Life pub again this evening, all being well. If I do go we'll see whether I'm ready to network yet, or if I'm still going to hang back in the shadows and just soak it up.