 |
Gig Review by Andy Tait
31st January, 2009
www.fasterlouder.com.au
Jeff Beck @ Palais Theatre, Melbourne
(27/1/09)
The night started off with Australian guitar virtuoso Jeff Lang and his bass player, a fine choice of support for Jeff Beck. It’s easy to draw parallels between Jeff and Jeff, both possessing outstanding guitar technique and, of course, the same first name, but it’s more important than that. Both are songwriters and they use their virtuosity to enhance their songs. This shows through for Jeff Lang on tracks like The Road is Not Your Only Friend, inspired by banjo players to the point where his guitar sounded like a banjo, and the nice steel lap guitar work on Some Memories Never Die.
After Jeff (1) departed, Jeff (2) and co took to the stage, opening with Jeff’s Bolero (anyone else sick of seeing the word ‘Jeff’?), which made for a pretty fine opener. Speaking of Beck, for a guy in his sixties he’s in pretty good shape, but more importantly he plays just as good as ever. Speaking of his playing, it’s just like Eric ‘Captain Boring’ Clapton says; it’s all in his hands. In fact I even saw him continuing a solo while shaking out a cramp in his right hand. But the important difference between Beck and other so-called guitar virtuosos is that Beck knows when to show off and when to play melody, he doesn’t fill every second with a torrent of notes. When he does it’s not to excess, i.e.: soloing with his teeth every five minutes. Such as in the cover of Goodbye Porkpie Hat , in which he took a solo with just his left hand, he had this big old happy grin which was just adorable. His band mates have the same mentality as Beck, they’re there mainly to entertain and have fun, not just to show off. Of special note was bass player Tal Wilkenfeld, acting more like a rhythm guitarist that just a bassist on songs like Led Boots ; although the drummer and keyboardist were both quite good, with the keyboardist playing a fine solo during Blue Wind . Speaking of his band mates he’s clearly enthralled by them; at one point getting down on his knees and faux-worshiping the bassist, and during the final bow out he stepped aside and applauded them.
Alas the night had to come to an end, and parhaps as a reference to Neil Young’s choice of ending song at BDO, Beck & Co. also finished with an amazing version of A Day In The Life. After a standing ovation, and two encores with one song apiece, finally Beck and Co huddled together and took a bow, with Beck thanking the audience (the third time of the night in which he spoke, not that he needs to, he could probably order a cup of coffee using nothing but his guitar and left hand), and departed the stage.
In short and without so much of my verbose Jeff Beck ass-worshiping, he’s still got it.
