Leslie West/Uli Jon Roth/Golden Ghosts / Raftree/Cashmier
- Starland Ballroom, Sayreville, NJ - February 4, 2012
By Phil Rainone, with help from Mike Lefton &
Alan Lefton
Glow Strings, Spinal Tap Time-Warped, and Blues-Powered
Rock
We went to this show to see Leslie West and didn’t quite
know what to expect. The first two bands played 30 minutes
each, and were similar in nature, throwbacks to 70’s/80’s
Hair Metal. Both bands looked long-in-the tooth (as most of
us in the crowd did), with played-out riffs and cock-rock
posturiing (they “menacingly” prowled the stage,
and their “tortured” face/body gestures looked
faked).
But all three were definitely battle-worn rockers. You got
the feeling that Cashmier and Raftree saw the movie Spinal
Tap and thought it was real (“Did you come here to rock
‘n’ roll?” from one of the bands was met
with little reaction). If they had worked on their playing
more than posturing, they might have made the grade.- Oh yeah,
the guitar and bass players in Cashmier had glow-in-the-dark
strings… which didn’t make them play any better,
but hey, it’s, “All for the love of rock ‘n’
roll,” as they say.
Cashmier
For some cool meat-and-potatoes alt-rock, Golden Ghosts from
Los Angeles fit the bill nicely. The lead singer had mentioned
toward the end of their set that this was the last leg of
their East Coast tour, and they were excited to be on the
bill with Leslie West. Now here’s band that knows how
to get your attention and turn a show right around! Sounding
like a psychedelic version of the New York Dolls, these young
guns (most of the band looked in their early 20’s) amped
up the night with about a half-dozen tunes that, by the end
of their set, had created a psychedelic bonfire as the guitars
raged, the rhythm section seemingly pumped iron, the lead
singer wailed (working the stage like a shaman,) and the addition
of a keyboard/organ player crated a swirl of music that felt
like no other. You’ve got to see Golden Ghost next time
around!
Uli Jon Roth (long, grey haired 60’s road warrior),
who in some circles is considered a guitar virtuoso, put on
a performance in Shredding Metal 101. His five piece band
included two other guitar players (they looked to be in the
late teens or early 20’s), a solid rhythm section (they
looked the part of a classic metalheads, with long hair, beards
and mustaches), and a lead singer that looked like he just
been transported out of a really bad 70’s metal band
(think: Rush.) But he actually hit some high notes which were
somewhat impressive. On stage they looked like three different
generations of rockers. The crowd certainly appreciated their
hour-long set. Fortunately no one held up their cell phones
(lighters are a definite no-no these days) for an encore.
Actually, they did come back at the end of Leslie’s
set with more of the same shredder-than-you attitude, and
Zeppelin-wanna-be vocals, but by then the place was clearing
out except for the hardcore metal heads.
Golden Ghost
By now, pretty much anyone that’s interested in rock,
blues, and metal has heard that Leslie West had recently had
gone under surgery to have part of his right leg amputated
due to diabetes, and now plays in a wheel chair. Well, here’s
a situation where less is more. He’s been in rehabilitation
for a few months and has been touring and recorded a new album.
Leslie had made a joke about losing his leg about 1/3 of the
way through the show, and everyone applauded, cheered, and
there were quite a few “We love you, Leslie!”
shouts throughout the night. Leslie showed his appreciation
by blasting out some classic Mountain tunes, along with some
cool covers.
Opening with a cover of The Impressions soul-stirring “People
Get Ready,” Leslie enthralled the crowd with his own
heart-melting blues-ified version to a cheering crowd. Then,
with what sounded like a lion’s roar, Leslie and his
three piece band launched into “Blood of the Sun,”
the first song from his first album “Mountain”
(produced by Mountain band mate, Felix Pappalardi) from the
late 60’s. That album’s genesis was the corner
stone that would make Leslie, with Felix on bass, Corky Lang
on drums, and Steve Knight on keyboards, became a MAJOR rock/blues
band, Mountain.
Uli John Roth Band
Will The Circle Be Unbroken?
As a side note, Mike Lefton (check out the interview with
Mike, John Hawken, and Bill Turner in these here Jersey Beat
pages) styled his guitar playing after Leslie’s, and
his dad Alan’s bass playing has a lot in common with
Jack Bruce’s (Cream, West, Bruce and Lang, to name a
few) style.
The cool link between Mountain, Cream, and WB&L was Felix
Pappalardi (I wanted to play bass like Felix when I was a
kid). He was like the calm in the eye of the hurricane, compared
to Leslie’s whirling dervish-style of no-holds-barred
rock ‘n’ roll. Pappalardi produced all of Cream’s
albums. Jack Bruce was the “B” in the 70’s
super group WB&L (West, Bruce & Lang), after Felix’s
untimely death.
With Leslie’s bass player cavorting around the stage
like a hell-on-wheels punk rocker, Leslie still was the center
of attention as they launched into one of Mountain’s
classics, “Theme for an Imaginary Western,” written
by Jack Bruce. Even with Felix’s absence (God rest his
soul), Leslie and the band gave the 60’s warhorse a
new spirit and mojo. What was a little distracting, but somewhat
cool was the bass player’s solo, which lasted over five
minutes, and included a nod to Johnny Nash’s “I
can See Clearly Now” and The Beatles’ “Eleanor
Rigby.”
When they set about re-imaging Woody Guthrie’s classic,
“House of the Rising Sun” they got into a jam
that was filled with some nasty electric blues and Leslie’s
image-building vocals that lasted almost ten minutes. Then
they pulled out “Mississippi Queen,’ which they
usually close with, which gave the song more traction, I think.
With an ending that seemed to last forever, there were huge
smiles all around, including the fans that were just treated
to some of the finest blues rock this side of the Mississippi
(pun intended.)
Uli Jon Roth joined the band on stage for “House,”
and also another cover, “I’m Going Down, “which
was like a lesson in Blues Rock 101. Uli Jon seemed to rise
to the occasion as to me, he sounded sharper than when he
played with his band. At times trading licks with Leslie,
and other times they both reached for the heavens with searing,
spiraling dual solos.
After about an hour set, Leslie and his band left
the stage, and within about ten minutes Uli Jon Roth and his
band came back on stage and played a couple of more songs
to end the night. I haven’t seen that before, but it
was a nice touch to end a four hour-plus manic, music, marathon.
The only thing missing was that Leslie didn’t play any
songs from his new album, which seems to be one of his best.
Maybe next time?
Johnny Ramone once said that Leslie West was one of the 5
top guitar players of his era. I couldn’t have said
it better myself!
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