A hit…with a few misses Picked up the new Panic CD yesterday, and was pretty impressed. As a whole, this recording is a departure from their previous live effort, Light Fuse Get Away. DDBB adds a lot to tunes like Weight of the World (which I can’t imagine without the horns) and Superstition, but I think it gets to be a bit much, as evidenced by a muddled Beehive Jam.
a jam band without a lead guitarist? When I unexpectedly stumbled upon this CD the other day, it looked like a no brainer. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band! They could make a Rickey Martin medley sound good! I even thought there might be shades of (gasp) The Band when they recorded live albums with mighty horn sections. Then I listened to it, and couldn’t help feeling disappointed. The Dozen, of course, kick ass–though they could have been mixed a little more to the front. And the … rhythm section is outstanding. Come to think of it, everybody is pulling their weight more or less except the lead guitarist. This is where the jam falls flat. If you’re going to have a jam/improvisational band, and especially if you’re going to extend the songs even further for a live album then, darn it, you need a lead guitarist! One that can play blue notes…you know, bend the strings a little! Have that feel! Throughout this album, the lead guitar playing is very pedestrian–it sounds like the way someone plays lead when their hands are cold. Sluggish, just trying to hit the notes at all (with intonation, style, and flair straight out the window). I’m not a Panic fanatic, so I can’t really say if this guy sounds like this all the time (my memory tells me that earlier albums had better lead playing than this), but I have to say that on this disc he just doesn’t cut it. Frankly, it’s not even close (example–half way through the opening medley). It’s a real shame, too, because an agile, firey blues picker could have lit the flame under this burner. As it stands, though, some serious Anglo-itis dampens what could have been a classic combination. Too bad. I’ll just go listen to “The Last Waltz.”
A hit…with a few misses Picked up the new Panic CD yesterday, and was pretty impressed. As a whole, this recording is a departure from their previous live effort, Light Fuse Get Away. DDBB adds a lot to tunes like Weight of the World (which I can’t imagine without the horns) and Superstition, but I think it gets to be a bit much, as evidenced by a muddled Beehive Jam.
a jam band without a lead guitarist? When I unexpectedly stumbled upon this CD the other day, it looked like a no brainer. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band! They could make a Rickey Martin medley sound good! I even thought there might be shades of (gasp) The Band when they recorded live albums with mighty horn sections. Then I listened to it, and couldn’t help feeling disappointed. The Dozen, of course, kick ass–though they could have been mixed a little more to the front. And the … rhythm section is outstanding. Come to think of it, everybody is pulling their weight more or less except the lead guitarist. This is where the jam falls flat. If you’re going to have a jam/improvisational band, and especially if you’re going to extend the songs even further for a live album then, darn it, you need a lead guitarist! One that can play blue notes…you know, bend the strings a little! Have that feel! Throughout this album, the lead guitar playing is very pedestrian–it sounds like the way someone plays lead when their hands are cold. Sluggish, just trying to hit the notes at all (with intonation, style, and flair straight out the window). I’m not a Panic fanatic, so I can’t really say if this guy sounds like this all the time (my memory tells me that earlier albums had better lead playing than this), but I have to say that on this disc he just doesn’t cut it. Frankly, it’s not even close (example–half way through the opening medley). It’s a real shame, too, because an agile, firey blues picker could have lit the flame under this burner. As it stands, though, some serious Anglo-itis dampens what could have been a classic combination. Too bad. I’ll just go listen to “The Last Waltz.”