Concrete Blonde, Jim Bianco
Granada Theater
June 18, 2010
Better than: listening to Bloodletting on CD, sad to say.
The recent trend of bands performing shows and planning them around an entire album has become quite the rage these days. It's gotten almost absurd: The fan-friendly phenomenon has grown to the point where certain acts will even go out and perform entire, classic albums from bands they had nothing to do with (see: The Flaming Lips, Cheap Trick).
Friday night in Dallas, as they have in many other parts of the country in recent weeks, Concrete Blonde provided their take on the recent concert-industry retro-craze to a packed-out Granada Theater.
Their tour has been advertised as a "Twentieth Anniversary Tour" for
their stellar, commercial breakthrough Bloodletting album.
Interestingly enough, though, Johnette Napolitano and crew didn't actually play
their entire album--let alone play it in succession--as many acts
performing these so-called "album-concerts" have done in recent times.
Basically, Concrete Blonde simply put on a firey show that, yes,
borrowed heavy from the album being celebrated, but pulled songs from
their other releases as well, including 1993's Mexican Moon and Walking
in London from 1992.
The Los Angeles-formed trio--consisting of a Napoitano (who looked
smashing, dressed in an age-defying, tight, black mini-skirt), guitarist James Mankey and drummer Gabriel Ramirez--entered the stage
while Bauhaus's "Bela Lugosi's Dead" fittingly played over the PA.
Even more fittingly, the choice of song with which to open was
"Bloodletting (The Vampire Song)," which happens to open the album of
the same name. The bluesy, guitar-goth gave their set an energetic and
forceful beginning, and set the stage for the tone that would dominate
the evening, musically.
In rather surprising fashion, the hit song that placed Concrete Blonde
onto the top 40 charts, "Joey", was belted out in the second spot of the
night, and, predictably, was greeted with the flashes and attention of
all sorts of cameras from the audience (more on that later). The
propulsive bass drum kicks and the sheer, balls-out rock of the
arrangement overtook the somewhat sappy melodrama of the original,
recorded product that was ever-present on radio all those years ago.
Perhaps surprisingly, Napolitano's voice was in fine, bold form
throughout the show. And, the dated production which, looking in
hindsight, gave the album a somewhat schlocky sheen, was power-washed
away by the chugging and wall-rattling power that the stripped-down
dynamic provided. In the case of certain numbers, such as "I Was a
Fool," soulful R&B vibes were evident for all to hear, thanks to
the cleansing power of simply plugging and tearing it up.
Thanks to a few flash bulbs, it seemed as Napolitano might not make it
through the night. After expressing her irritation at being made to
forget some lines to "Joey," she seemed to calm down--until later, when
it happened again. But she fought through
it, and seemed to settle down after a second scolding. Feeling the love from the crowd, Napolitano soldiered on and led the
band through some tight versions of the metal-esque "God is a Bullet",
"Caroline", "Lullabye", "I Don't Need a Hero" and "Someday?", which
featured an inspired, soaring vocal performance from the bass player
with killer pipes.
It's understandable that after over 20 years of on-and-off touring,
Concrete Blonde knows how to close out a show. The serene, heavily
acoustic, encore closing, one-two punch of Jimi Hendrix's "Little Wing,"
which they have played for some time now, and Bloodletting track,
"Tomorrow, Wendy" supplied the audience with more of a campfire-lit,
communal experience than most artists provide with their typically
rousing, show-closing numbers.
The story of the night wasn't the fact that the Bloodletting album
wasn't fully performed; it was that Napolitano effectively pulled off an
Olympic-style vocal gymnastics master-class. At times, she offered a low and smokey offering; at other moment, a controlled caterwaul. This is a singer who
doesn't need a marketing ploy or gimmick anniversary to be special.
Critic's Notebook
Personal Bias: Bloodletting was one of my favorite albums through the
'90s. "Joey" is in my Top 5 songs for that entire decade, even. With
that said, I was more than a little nervous about hearing the songs live
after all these years--especially after I revisited the album in its
entirety for the first time in a long time recently. Thankfully, my
fears weren't realized on the live-end of the spectrum. There's a big
difference between an album sounding vintage or even classic and just
plain old. Sadly, the album version of these tunes fall on the side of
the latter, for me, thanks mainly to the ham-fisted production it was
saddled with.
Random Note: As expected, the crowd that gathered outside of the theater
before the start of the show resembled the saloon scene from Star Wars.
Truthfully, it was an impressive mix of Goth-girls, D-bags, cougars who
should probably just retire to their respective dens, and leather-clad
bikers. I wouldn't have it any other way.
By the Way: Congrats to the newly engaged, lesbian couple that was able
to have Napolitano actually make the proposal from the stage. Quite the
coup, indeed.
