grainy-redundant
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[bomp] Live recordings of dubious legality
I was just at my mom's house for the weekend because she needed work done on
her computer, so I burned CDs of a few shows that I downloaded last time I
was there:
The best of the bunch is the Cheepskates from 88. After playing a complete
set, they did about a dozen encores, mostly covers. The band was pretty good
and Shane Faubert is one of my favorite songwriters. If I had my choice,
I'd rather hear the original line up at The Dive (I have the 3 song DVD) and
I'd have prefered if Faubert played organ instead of rhythm guitar, but
there's nothing wrong with this at all. Except that the last song, a cover
of "I Wonder What She's Doing Tonight" ends after 20 seconds. (They also do
"Look Out Here Comes Tomorrow." Maybe they were hoping The Monkees would
record one of their songs, too.)
Second is Steve Forbert live in 79, five solo acoustic songs and five with
his band. I've never been too interested in acoustic singer/songwriters who
get the "next Dylan" tag, but I've always liked Forbert. While people like
Springsteen and John Cougar were making records that screamed "LOOK AT ME,
I'M A POPULIST" (and others were making records that screamed "LOOK AT ME,
I'M LIKE SPRINGSTEEN), Forbert was making records that sounded like the kind
of records most people (if they were reasonably intelligent and had decent
taste) would, except that he happened to also be fairly good at writing and
singing. Turns out he's a fairly engaging performer and a pretty good
harmonica player, too.
And bring up the rear is Chicago Blues Reunion from 2006, proving my theory
that all-star jams only work when Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield are actually
in the band. It's not bad, just nothing that interested me too much. Harvey
Mandel and Barry Goldberg do some nice playing, but the music around them is
just a glorified blues bar band.
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