In a seven day stretch that started with Van Halen at Mohegan Sun and included They Might Be Giants at Terminal 5, (not to mention Boston Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall) Soulive at Brooklyn Bowl was not only my favorite show of the week but is the show to beat for the best of 2012. Of course if I had a ticket to the Apollo on Friday for Springsteen (see vid at this link), that might not be the case but even a dude at large can’t always get a ticket…

Beginning at the casino, the main questions were these –
Can Eddie Van Halen still blind us with speed and amaze us with inventive technique?
Can David Lee Roth still command the stage like a gladiator while guiding us through the raunch of Everybody Wants Some and bravado of Unchained?

Answers…yes and yes. David’s California cocaine cool is undiminished. He moved like a yogi and instead of repeating spoken word bits in the songs verbatim, he riffed on things like losing all his income for the show before it started by playing Blackjack. He and Eddie even did a call and response thing in which David sang the notes that were played that was reminiscent of Ian Gillian and Richie Blackmore of Deep Purple. David didn’t kill himself reaching for notes. He stayed in his comfort zone while Eddie dazzled with his trademark tapping, hammer-ons and pull-offs.

Wolfy did fine but Michael’s backing vocals were missed. That’s hardly a deal breaker though. They didn’t go heavy on the new stuff but their new album A Different Kind of Truth is surprisingly strong and the tracks they did feature went over well. Something that you rarely see at an arena show and less so at a casino show; everyone was UP the whole time. It would have been unthinkable to sit…

And that goes for the Soulive show too at my favorite venue in NYC – Brooklyn Bowl. The principal three are loaded weapons:
Neil Evans’ Hammond organ and clavinet intoxicates and draws a template for his drummer brother Alan and guitarist Eric Krasno to riff over. They bob and weave, shake and shimmy, and groove in a monstrous way and were joined on stage for this, the eighth night of the ten night Bowlive residency, by a ridiculously talented and diverse crew. Citizen Cope knocking out Bullet and a Target and 107 Degrees was glorious but only the beginning as Alice Smith was stunning when it was her turn to sing. Billy Martin (One of the M’s in MMW), George Porter Jr. of The Meters, Questlove, and Kofi Burbridge all contributed to the celebration.

Whereas Soulive do better what a lot of bands try to do, They Might Be Giants are singularly idiosyncratic. I had forgotten what a large handful of their songs had burrowed into my brain. Particle Man, Birdhouse in Your Soul, Ana Ng, Don’t Let’s Start, and Istanbul all were welcome and familiar while a bit of Sabbath’s Paranoid accompanied by sock puppets, references to Sleestaks, and the two Johns’ psychic nickname power delighted as well. The audience was as engaged and obedient as any evidenced by a spirited Battle for the Planet of the Apes. That’s when one half of the audience chants “people!” and the other half chants “apes!” Add John Linnell’s bass clarinet, Mark Pender’s trumpet, and dog biscuits on video projection and you’ve got yourself a fun night. Opener Jonathan Coulton was a savvy pairing and he offered some memorable tunes including one from the perspective of Rick Springfield and another from Pluto’s moon. Suzanne Vega’s appearance on stage was an unexpected highlight.

As for Bruce, be sure to take a peek at the pictures and get the details from the Backstreets site that always does a good job on all things Springsteen.

…the links are to my video reviews of the album or a concert appearance by the band.

1 Spoon: Transference
2 Corinne Bailey Rae: The Sea
3 Grinderman: Grinderman 2
4 Black Keys: Brothers
5 Erykah Badu: New Amerika 2 – Return of the Ankh
6 Broken Bells: S/T
7 The Dead Weather: Sea of Cowards
8 Citizen Cope: The Rainwater LP
9 The Hold Steady: Heaven is Whenever
10 Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings: I Learned the Hard Way