Heheheh... Saw him here in Los Angeles tonight at the House of Blues (BTW
we had a mini list-meet - shouts to R. Scott and Suubi!) I was a little
disappointed by their "rock show" here at the Roxy last year but this time
around they put more of that JTQ funk we all know and love.
Yes they did cover the 2001 theme (funny, cos JT was asking for requests,
and pretended to hear "2001" as a request...), as did 'Starsky and Hutch'.
I'm not a fan of most of the JTQ live covers at all. "Mrs. Robinson"
bordered on hokey, and I never liked their "Whole Lotta Love" in the first
place (The only stinker on the "...Inevitable" album). They also did Booker
T's "Green Onions" - a classic, yes, but I'm sure JTQ can do better than a
12-bar blues tune (so should The Greyboy Allstars, but I digress... :)).
Only "Starsky" and "Blow Up" were the only covers that did it for me. Are
they resorting to covers (they played most of the same covers during their
U.S. tour last year) in order to wow the American crowd? C'mon, JT, We're
more hipper than that; there were even a lot of mod-types at the show who
even requested some Prisoners tunes and others who wanted some 'Money
Spyder' material!
>But, as I read on the many web pages they certianly tried to get the
>audience into it, but, only at the last song when they invited people up on
>the tiny stage did they seem to get us moving.
The crowd at H.O.B.L.A. was movin' and groovin, especially during the funky
numbers. There were even some women who got up on stage as early as in the
middle of their set.
>I noticed the huge speaker he had for his Hammond, what exactly does it do?
>I saw something spinning, that he would adjust to aim at the mikes, any
>thoughts, sources, info?
It's a Leslie speaker. It's what gives a Hammon organ its character. The
spinning things are speaker horns, and the fact that they spin give it that
"WhEeeEEeeEEee" kinda sound (without it, it'll sound like, "Taaaaaaaa").
You can also turn on/off or speed up/slow down the spinning for different
sounds; JT has a footswitch on the floor that lets him do that.
One question, especially to the UK/European listmembers - Does JT ever go
onstage with other keyboards?
I've seen photos of him with a Hammond B3, Rhodes, Clavinet and Minimoog
synth, and obviously he plays them on the albums. He's a great Hammond
player but a *killer* clavinet, Rhodes and synth player too. I will never
be truly impressed by a JTQ show unless he's playing all those other
keyboards as well.
Also, has JTQ ever had guest vocalists on stage? Has Noel McCoy or Alison
Limerick ever sang with them live?
My rating: 6/10. At least I got in for free...
Elson