 |
Melbourne review from Kohler's Week
My son Chris and I went to his concert in Melbourne last night and the Palais seemed to be full of middle-aged men taking puzzled sons, to show them what it was like in the sixties when The Yardbirds and Led Zeppelin ruled the world.
It was better than I’d hoped in my wildest nostalgia. Chris was agog. The man is a genius, even better than he was 40 years ago - a peerless master of the Fender Stratocaster, ranging brilliantly from loud, driving blues/rock to an astounding version of the Beatles’ Day In The Life and a beautiful cover of Somewhere Over the Rainbow. His encore, to a roaring Palais crowd, was Nessum Dorma, one of my most loved songs. It was an incredible, eye-watering end to the night: if anything the Fender was more heart wrenching than Pavarotti’s voice, more powerful than Aretha Franklin’s.
Is Beck the greatest living rock guitarist? After last night, I think he is. I saw Clapton two years ago and before that Santana. Neither was up to Beck’s level. Hendrix might have been better, but he’s dead. (Rolling Stone put Hendrix at No.1 rock guitarist of all time and Beck at 14 – a travesty, in my view). Beck out-Gilmoured Dave Gilmour with beautiful lyrical harmonics; he’s better at finger picking than Mark Knopfler; he drove the driving rock better than Clapton; and he’s a superior technician to Jimmy Page, Keith Richards or Duane Allman.
If I’m sounding a bit overwhelmed, it’s because I still am. It was an incredible concert.
