I saw Jeff Beck with opening act Zappa Plays Zappa on Saturday night at the Nokia Theater in Los Angeles. I'm a HUGE Zappa fan and have only recently gotten into Jeff Beck - mostly due to his awesome show at Ronnie Scott's shown on Palladia. So this was a no brainer for me to trek up to Los Angeles for the show, and dragged a friend along, too.
The doors were to open at 7 PM, show at 8. At 7 there was a huge line outside, so we headed of to the Trader Vic's for some cocktails and to wait 'till the lines dwindled. We came back around 7:40 and the line was enormous; everyone had to go through a metal detector. We got to the gate around 8:10 and I could hear Zappa already starting (they were in the middle of "Keep it Greasy" from Joe's Garage). I was thoroughly pissed that they would start the show without having let everyone inside. How did they expect to get 7000 people through metal detectors and seated in under an hour? And since when does a rock concert start on time?
By the time we made it through the dark to our seats (which were much farther away than I thought and would have gone with the cheaper nosebleeds instead had I known since you end up watching the whole show on a jumbotron anyway), they were in the middle of "Magic Fingers" from 200 Motels. The rest of the setlist included (to the best of my recollection):
Keep it Greasy (from Joe's Garage)
Magic Fingers (from 200 Motels)
Echidna's Arf (of You) (from Roxy and Elsewhere)
Don't You Ever Wash that Thing (from Roxy and Elsewhere)
Nanook Rubs It (from Apostrophe)
Montana (from Overnite Sensation)
Peaches en Regalia (from Hot Rats)
Willie the Pimp (from Hot Rats)
When they stopped playing and the lights came up I said "That's it?". They only ended up playing for 50 minutes. I didn't expect a full set but I felt seriously ripped off. Besides the limited time, the sound mix was bad: Lead vocals way down in the mix, as were the bass guitar and saxophone. The band was tight as usual, but I guess they went for Zappa "hits" since this audience wasn't their usual crowd. I've seen them several times already but look forward to seeing ZPZ again (hopefully this summer at the House of Blues in Anaheim) where they can stretch out for their typical three-plus hours and show off something new in their repertoire. I saw them at the tiny Roxy in LA and that was an amazing show!
After ZPZ ended, the drunken guy next to us said "Who came here to see Zappa". I said that I had and he said "I remember that song 'Muffin Man'". To which I responded, "Some people like cupcakes better; I for one care less for them". He finished his near one sided drunken conversation by saying "I hope Jeff Beck plays something I recognize, 'cause I was around back then". I guess he didn't recognize anything, because he and his lady were gone halfway through Beck's set.
Jeff Beck was good, playing a decent amount of material I was familiar with from Live at Ronnie Scott's, but he added the novelty of a 20-some piece orchestra that didn't add anything. His band had a tight groove and his playing was great. The drummer did a wild left handed triplet fill on the toms that had me and my friend shaking our heads in amazement. Sound mix was bad on this, too, with too much kick drum and not enough bass guitar. Here is what I knew of the setlist:
Eternity's Breath
Stratus
Led Boots
People Get Ready (really put a damper on the hard driving fusion that preceded it)
Big Block
Over the Rainbow (what a downer)
Angels
Brush with the Blues
A Day in the Life (nice)
The encore included a cheesy rendition of "How High the Moon" with a prerecorded vocal track. I would have preferred "Beck's Bolero" or "Scatterbrain". I would also like to see him again, but in a smaller venue.
In all the show was disappointing. Too much money for the seats, not enough ZPZ, bad sound and a schlep from Orange County. Unless you enjoy enormous arena type concerts where the musician's are mere dots on the stage, I would not recommend seeing a show at the Nokia!
The doors were to open at 7 PM, show at 8. At 7 there was a huge line outside, so we headed of to the Trader Vic's for some cocktails and to wait 'till the lines dwindled. We came back around 7:40 and the line was enormous; everyone had to go through a metal detector. We got to the gate around 8:10 and I could hear Zappa already starting (they were in the middle of "Keep it Greasy" from Joe's Garage). I was thoroughly pissed that they would start the show without having let everyone inside. How did they expect to get 7000 people through metal detectors and seated in under an hour? And since when does a rock concert start on time?
By the time we made it through the dark to our seats (which were much farther away than I thought and would have gone with the cheaper nosebleeds instead had I known since you end up watching the whole show on a jumbotron anyway), they were in the middle of "Magic Fingers" from 200 Motels. The rest of the setlist included (to the best of my recollection):
Keep it Greasy (from Joe's Garage)
Magic Fingers (from 200 Motels)
Echidna's Arf (of You) (from Roxy and Elsewhere)
Don't You Ever Wash that Thing (from Roxy and Elsewhere)
Nanook Rubs It (from Apostrophe)
Montana (from Overnite Sensation)
Peaches en Regalia (from Hot Rats)
Willie the Pimp (from Hot Rats)
When they stopped playing and the lights came up I said "That's it?". They only ended up playing for 50 minutes. I didn't expect a full set but I felt seriously ripped off. Besides the limited time, the sound mix was bad: Lead vocals way down in the mix, as were the bass guitar and saxophone. The band was tight as usual, but I guess they went for Zappa "hits" since this audience wasn't their usual crowd. I've seen them several times already but look forward to seeing ZPZ again (hopefully this summer at the House of Blues in Anaheim) where they can stretch out for their typical three-plus hours and show off something new in their repertoire. I saw them at the tiny Roxy in LA and that was an amazing show!
After ZPZ ended, the drunken guy next to us said "Who came here to see Zappa". I said that I had and he said "I remember that song 'Muffin Man'". To which I responded, "Some people like cupcakes better; I for one care less for them". He finished his near one sided drunken conversation by saying "I hope Jeff Beck plays something I recognize, 'cause I was around back then". I guess he didn't recognize anything, because he and his lady were gone halfway through Beck's set.
Jeff Beck was good, playing a decent amount of material I was familiar with from Live at Ronnie Scott's, but he added the novelty of a 20-some piece orchestra that didn't add anything. His band had a tight groove and his playing was great. The drummer did a wild left handed triplet fill on the toms that had me and my friend shaking our heads in amazement. Sound mix was bad on this, too, with too much kick drum and not enough bass guitar. Here is what I knew of the setlist:
Eternity's Breath
Stratus
Led Boots
People Get Ready (really put a damper on the hard driving fusion that preceded it)
Big Block
Over the Rainbow (what a downer)
Angels
Brush with the Blues
A Day in the Life (nice)
The encore included a cheesy rendition of "How High the Moon" with a prerecorded vocal track. I would have preferred "Beck's Bolero" or "Scatterbrain". I would also like to see him again, but in a smaller venue.
In all the show was disappointing. Too much money for the seats, not enough ZPZ, bad sound and a schlep from Orange County. Unless you enjoy enormous arena type concerts where the musician's are mere dots on the stage, I would not recommend seeing a show at the Nokia!
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