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(TV) Review: Best of the British Invasion at the Bottom Line 4/28



I went to the Bottom Line last night and caught THE BEAT GOES ON: BEST OF THE
BRITISH INVASION tribute show last night (at the 7:30 show). It was, as always,
packed, and a great show, with a big house band (featuring strings and horns!)
backing a variety of obscure and not-so-obscure singing acts (including Richard
Lloyd and Voidoid Ivan Julian). May Pang was the hostess.

First Set:
Telstar Tornadoes) - an instrumental piece done by the house band.

Shapes of Things (Yardbirds) - done by Ricky Byrd. It was pretty plodding until
the end, when Byrd created a maelstrom of sound from his guitar; in an extended
code, the band even briefly went into "Over Under Sideways Down". Great.

Downtown (Petula Clark) - They got out the horns and strings for this one, done
by Jenni Muldaur. Terrific.

New York Mining Disaster (Bee Gees) - Good but slightly unsteady three part
harmony done by the Green Rooftops.

Hippy Hippy Shake (Swinging Blue Jeans) - Tish & Snooky.

Gimme Some Lovin' (Spencer Davis Group) - done, with great effect, by Richard
X. Heyman, who really pumped life into this often-comatose standard.

Girl Don't Come (Sandie Shaw) - Lisa Burns.

It's My Life (the Animals, written by Carl D'Errico) - ... and performed by
Carl D'Errico, who seemed to be enjoying himself.

Care of Cell 44 (Zombies) - Performed by Mychael Lamorte. A stupendous, classic
song, standing strong through slightly iffy (but energitic) performance.
However, this song  - like a few later on - made me wonder why the band was
going for relative obscurities and missing songs that could have got the
audience sing-a-long ("She's Not There", etc.) This became even more obvious at
the end of the second set...

Bus Stop (Hollies) - One of my favorite pieces of 60s pop - the line about
"someday my name and hers are going to be the same" always gets me - performed
by Bob Perry, Julia Greenberg, and Stephanie Seymour.

World Without Love (Peter and Gordon, written by Paul McCartney) - performed by
the Kennedys, a male/female duo. One was dressed as Peter Asher, one as Jane
Asher, who joked "my boyfriend wrote this song for us".

I'm So Glad (Cream) - A *towering* performance by Richard Lloyd. It's a simple
song that gives a lot of leeway to the lead guitarist; Richard took every inch
of it. He described it as "a song from that period of rock that could be called
'let me show you what I can do with a single string, in this case, the G
string. I might stray from that a bit, and I hope Eric can forgive me'." When
he finished, my girlfriend said, "Ok, now I can see why you're going to Chicago
to see him play!"

Second set:
Massachusetts (Bee Gees) - performed by Ladybug Transistor. What a great band -
I'll definitely need to pick up their album - and they did a terrific job on
this song. Still, in a 'British Invasion' show with no Who, no Pretty Things,
no Creation, etc. did we really need *two* Bee Gees songs?

White Summer (Yardbirds) - performed by Gary Lucas.

Friday on My Mind (Easybeats) - performed by Wille Nile; after a dedication to
Joey Ramone, this song was performed Ramones-style!

Gloria (Van Morrison) - performed by Jon Tiven and Ellis Hooks. A slow,
pounding version with Hooks really firing up the audience. At one point, he got
May Pang on stage and said, "I don't need a Lost Weekend with you, I just need
five minutes!" (Lennon reference)

To Sir With Love (Lulu) - performed by Laurie Brand Blackstone, of the Green
Rooftops.

It's Not Unusual (Tom Jones) - performed by Carlton Smith, interpolating "Land
of 1000 Dances" in the middle.

She's a Rainbow (Rolling Stones) - performed by Kris Woolsey, and probably the
highlight of the entire night. Great sound, tight performance, fantastic song.
Another case of a 60s Stones' cover sounding slightly better than the Stones'
original!

A Whiter Shade of Pale (Procol Harum) - performed by Joy Askew.

First Cut is the Deepest (Cat Stevens, made famous by Rod Stewart) - performed
by Joe Hurley.

All Day and All of the Night (Kinks) - performed by Will Lee. Slightly
lethargic, all things considered - it's a tough song to screw-up.

Losing You (Dusty Springfield) - Great performance by Christine Ohlman.

Wild Thing (Troggs, Hendrix, etc.) - Ivan Julian (of the Voidoids) did a
stunning version of this, relying heavily on Hendrix's slow-and-heavy version.
He's a great Television-related guitarist we don't talk about much on this
group, but after seeing this performance, it seems like a crime. Quite a long
number, with Julian all over the place. 

A Beatles Finale - performed by the house band. Again, the issue of "obscurity"
comes to the front, as the band performed "Anna", "You Won't See Me", "I'm Only
Sleeping", "She's Leaving Home", and "Ballad of John & Yoko" - great songs all,
but not exactly set-closers, and the audience could sing along with barely any
of them. Still, they did a terrific job holding them together, and you've gotta
admire their audacity for picking those.

The house band, BTW, had the usual BEAT GOES ON regulars, including Tony
Shanahan of the Patti Smith Group, Tish and Snooky, and Andy Burton.

Anyhow, while not as strong as the Nuggets show I saw a year ago (which
probably benefited from songs that are capable of being played by relatively
unrehearsed bands and still sound great) it was overall a great show, and had
some really stellar performances by Richard and Ivan.

--Philip


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