I was heading down to Nashville for other reasons this past weekend and, lo and behold, Mercy Lounge announces a benefit for Nashville flood victims that is at the same time a tribute to the late, great Alex Chilton (one of my all time musical heroes) featuring Jody Stephens (the original drummer of Big Star) as well as multiple other local and Southern musicians whom I'd be pretty stoked to see in general.
My buddy Aaron and I headed up around 10 just as David Vandervelde was finishing up a nice solo take on "Take Care." This was followed by nice solo versions of "I'm in Love With a Girl" and "Thirteen" by Carl Broemmel from My Morning Jacket (see photo).
Next up was the de facto "house band," featuring Jody Stephens on drums, Chris Stamey of the dB's on guitar and vocals and Mitch Easter on guitar and vocals. They sounded amazing together, obviously seasoned musicians to a tee. They also played a great selection of classic Big Star:
"I Am The Cosmos" (Chris on vocals)
"When My Baby's Beside Me" (Chris on vocals)
"Way Out West" (Jody on vocals)
"Kizza Me" (Mitch on vocals)
Then came a local Nashville power pop band called
Joe, Marc's Brother, who also sounded insanely tight and did a great job with "Jesus Christ" and "Thank You Friends," followed by the house band (without Jody on drums now) doing "Life is White," "In The Street," "Don't Lie to Me," and "The Letter" (with a couple of the original Box Tops coming up to play, too). It was very celebratory and just sounded great. These tunes are so good, though, that one could argue that they are hard to mess up.
The end came with Brendan Benson (of the Raconteurs, etc.) getting up to lead the band through a shambling but charming "O My Soul" and, to close, of course, "September Gurls." This was a great night of music, and if there's any problem I had, it was that a serious segment of the crowd didn't seem all that familiar with the Big Star catalog. But this was, at the end of the day, simply fantastic.
.jpg)
No comments:
Post a Comment