Review of Beck in San Fran...

[NY Chief]

wuhuuuu, I'm goin tonight!

********************

I saw Jeff Beck last night at the Warfield (SF) on his mini-west-coast tour. First time seeing Mr. Beck, as well as Mr. Coliauta. Plus, I have not been to a big concert in years.

First off - Jeff Beck is possibly the (2nd?) greatest electric guitar player ever( this is from a die-hard Hendrix fan). The man is an absolute master of the instrument. Every note, every phrase is expressive and emotion-filled. He is able to elevate the guitar to the expressive level of the human voice, like NO other I have ever heard. Oh sure, I love the studio work (Wired, Blow by Blow particularly), but to see him stand up there with just a guitar, an amp (and one little mystery box) and make those same beautiful and powerful sounds for an hour and a half... well, I'm still trying to absorb it. The guy makes Satriani, Vai, et al look like robots.

Pino Palladino was on bass, and was very good, of course.

Vinnie was just the monster player that he is. With a couple of exceptions, this was not 'virtuoso' type drum material, but he was clearly having a GREAT time playing with Jeff. He was grinning from ear to ear the whole time!

I'm guessing that the band had minimal rehearsal (a 6 date tour), which manifested itself a few times. On 2 of my favorite tunes - "Goodbye Pork Pie Hat" and "Led Boots", they started the tunes, and then abandoned them after a few times through!! On Led Boots, Vinnie and Pino just were not doing the parts right - Vinnie was playing the "A" part kind of straight, without all of the great hihat barks that Narada did in the original. It was just kinda laying there, and Jeff was trying to get the feel but it was clearly not there - so he just sequed into another tune!

Now this I found quite charming. I mean, here were these guys really playing together. There was constant eye contact, Jeff was signalling changes, etc. It was very intimate, if you know what I mean.

The surprise of the evening was guest vocalist Beth Hart. WOW is all I can say. She had a commanding and charming (in a sweaty, tatooed body Janis kind of way) stage presence, an incredibly powerful voice, and an animal sensuality. Hey, what more could you want! She was not the least bit intimidated, and interacted with Jeff in a great way - swatting at his guitar strings while he soloed, laying down on the stage and trading licks with him, the whole deal. I don't know where she came from, but she is one HECK of a singer/performer. Definitely keep an eye out for her!

Jeff closed out the night with one of the most beautiful versions of "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" I have ever heard - just him and keyboards.

All in all, a fun evening!

[JD]

I saw him play with Carlos Santana years ago in the early '90s, before he became popular again with the big album 'Supernatural' or whatever. I agree, I was just amazed what JB could do with just a bass player and drummer.

[NitroLiq]

You'll love this:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... ng&pl=true

Beck, just has this "thing" like Hendrix did where he's willing to take chances...sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't but when it does work...it's just insane. The vid clip above....I mean it's just just so entertaining to see how beck manipulates his strat....

[NY Chief]

The man is inhuman. And, he cares more about his hot rod's than playing (he says...yeah right though he does have some great hot rods, eh Andy?)