Love at the Fillmore
Concert Review by
Brian
Vaughan
It was a really good night overall, with the concert being the highlight (naturally!). I was lucky. Having not gotten a ticket beforehand, I rushed over to Berkeley & scored one on the way out to the Fillmore (I live in the East Bay).
After dealing with the trains & busses to get there (I was also running late, largely due to a s.n.a.f.u. with the train), I walk up to the Fillmore, get in, walk upstairs, and to my pleasant surprize, it's quiet, only people talking & walking around. I went into the auditorium & approached the soundman at the front-of-house mixer, asked him if I missed anything, he said I was "right on time". Now I was feeling real good. I was going to see it all! The band had just walked out on stage, with the audience doing the expected thing, cheering loudly. Even though there were more than 350 tickets left on the previous day, the place was packed, but it was fairly easy to get a spot that was between the obligatory 8' 5" monsters that have a nasty habit of being in front of you in these cases (I'm only 5' 11" tall!). As the show went on, people would walk away & relocate, leaving me with progressively sweeter spots to see the band. It's all about the music, so here's the setlist (with a few remarks mixed in):
1. "Little Red Book" 2. "Orange Skies" 3. "Your Mind And We Belong Together" (Right about now, many audience members are shouting for the sound to be turned up, Arthur Lee tells the crowd "I'm not in control of the sound, but you can tell the house people about it"- something close to that. Around this time, Arthur mentioned he had an accident that day, fell out of a bathtub, poor guy. He was limping around for the whole show, but his singing & playing were totally unaffected). Now, the presentation of "Forever Changes" is signalled by the string & horn ensembles walking onstage. The tracks in order of performance:
4. "Alone Again Or" 5. "A House Is Not A Motel" 6. "AndMoreAgain" (It was around this time the audience kept yelling again for the sound to be turned up- it wasn't that loud for a concert, I didn't even need earplugs at first- Arthur hollered for them to "turn the motherfucker up!" & it got a bit louder, which was better in this case. This was the 3rd time this happened, after that it was loud enough for the audience members to holler about something else! An audience member also was giving him some sort of friendly flak, Arthur responded by saying "you gotta get the bread outta your mouth when you're talking, man!" His quick wit is pretty amusing. Don't even mess with this guy!). The rest of "Forever Changes": 7. "Daily Planet" 8. "Old Man" (with an introduction of the tune from Arthur saying "now we're going to attempt to play a song from my late, great guitarist Bryan MacLean". I have to tell you, the "attempt" was a shining success!). 9. "Red Telephone" (this tune had some otherworldly effects from the strings in many places, quite haunting & beautiful). 10. "Between Clark And Hilldale" (Arthur introduced this as the location of a club they used to play at). 11. "Live And Let Live" 12. "Good Humor Man" 13. "Bummer In The Summer" 14. "You Set The Scene"
So, there you have the "Forever Changes" set. Amazing stuff. The performers on the strings & horns were really digging it, visibly grooving to the music, everyone on stage looked like they were having fun. Arthur occasionally conducted the orchestra section when he wasn't singing. This band has a really high energy & incredible flexibilty as performers, all of you familiar with the material know how varied & complex the rhythms & time changes are in many of the songs, in my view beyond the scope of most rock, but still accessible. Kind of an early progressive sound.
The audience was really into this show, people knew the songs, were cheering loudly after each performance. The band walks off stage after this set, & the audience is loudly expressing their requirement for more tunes from Love. Arthur had more trouble walking off & back onstage, his leg must have really been hurting. After about a minute of the crowd yelling for more, they all came back out & delivered the sizzling encore. Arthur had to sit down a sort spell before they played again. He said they wanted to play here again. The encore tunes were:
15. "7 & 7 Is" 16. "Everybody's Gotta Live" (Which is interpolated by John Lennon's "Instant Karma") 17. "Singing Cowboy" (What a scorcher this tune is! It was one of the most requested by the audience, too. To my delight, they jammed on this one for a while, with audience participation).
The concert ended with loud cheering & Arthur thanking everyone, asking if there was a doctor in the house, or a wheelchair (you could tell he was really hurting by now). His lead guitarist & bass player helped him offstage. The whole show was close to 90 minutes long (approx. 87).
Even though the show is over & people are moving out of the venue, things are still interesting for me. I asked the same soundman if he knew where I could find a setlist, & he suggested I might get one from someone on stage, one of the techs removing gear. I went up & asked one guy & he just shrugged it off. I took the time to quickly look at the guitars, footpedals, amps & other gear, then walked around looking at people to see if I could spot anyone with a setlist, then spotted a fellow named Nicholas McKinley who allowed me to copy his setlist. We talked about the concert, he recommended getting the re-mastered version of Love's "Forever Changes", & I agreed that I would have to get it. I mentioned that this was the 2nd time I had seen the band (the first for me was at the 35th Summer Of Love Celebration in San Francisco in 2002. The group of musicians backing Arthur in Love today are also a band known as Baby Lemonade, one of the best groups I've seen).
Andreas Forsman-violin-Stockholm Eric Holm-viola-Stockholm Anna Landsberg-cello-Stockholm Stefan Persson-trumpet-Stockholm Fredrick Oscarson-trumpet-Stockholm Malin My-violin-Stockholm Caroline Vandberg-violin-Stockholm Bjorn Samualsson-trombone-Gothenberg, Sweden Ketil Sodenberg-violin-Malmo, Sweden
Here's a copy of the backline list
Love with Arthur Lee - Backline Requirements:
GUITARS: Three (3) Fender Twin Reverb (100 watt) Amps W/ pedal that allows reverb and tremolo access w/ MASTER VOLUME. (Not Ch Switching Model!)
One (1) regular size Fender 50 watt Amp. (Blues DeVille)
BASS: One (1) Ampeg 300 watt Ampeg SVT Bass Head (Vintage Early 70's) with 8x10 cabinet Alternatives: Ampeg SVT Pro4 ---NO SVT CLASSIC SERIES HEADS!!! (Blue Type on Face) ---NO SVT II or III SERIES HEADS!!!
DRUMS: 10 inch rack tom, 12 inch rack tom, 14 inch floor tom, 22 inch kick drum. vintage (more shallow) depths on the rack toms if available) 14 inch snare drum.
CYMBALS: 18 Light crash, 20 inch crash/ride, 22 heavy ride (Zildjian A series or K series, Sabian aa or hh) 1 pair 14 inch Zildjian "A custom" hi hats Boom stands for all cymbals, include 1 extra boom cymbal stand.
6 Guitar Stands, 1 Acoustic Guitar Stand 9 Lighted Music Stands
It was an inspired feeling to leave the Fillmore after seeing & hearing some great music from the '60[s] performed *again*. It makes me think there's hope that real art will never die.
Brian Vaughan
Dave Chapple sez: (to Mike Fornatale):
Mike, I play a 1965 Fender Jazz Bass, Usually through a Vintage 70's 300 watt Ampeg w/ 8x10 Cabinet. Arthur plays a Fender Squire Strat. He doesn't really like it and has been looking for a White SG special.
Mike Randall:
Rusty and I use vintage Fender twin reverb
amps (I play thru a stereo set-up to take advantage of the stereo panning
from my boss dig delay) and I play a '78 white ES-335 I bought from
Jackson Browne 4 years ago, which i LOVE.
Arthur plays a Squire white strat into a Fender deluxe.
Love's website: [ LOVE WITH ARTHUR LEE ]
Mike Randle's tour diary: [ Mike Randall ]