By: Joe Lang
It breaks my heart to say it, but Robert Randolph and The Family Band phoned it in tonight. I know that anyone can have a bad night, but this show was a sleeper for me. Doors opened at 8 p.m., but I quickly learned that the band wouldn’t go on until 10:45. By the time the mobs of people outside First Avenue bought their tickets and went inside, the venue was about as packed as I’d ever seen it.
After grabbing some Newcastles, we settled in right outside the main floor, as it was too packed to penetrate. The crowd began to cheer when Randolph took his seat in front of his red lap steel guitar and started to lay down buttery and intense pedal steel lines, and the band warmed up behind him. The opener was a kind of groove-based vehicle for Randolph, which featured some throbbing bass drum work and brought to mind some fusion drummers like Jeff Sipe or Terry Bozzio. The song moved in and out of “Run For Your Life,” one of the more raucous pieces off of the 2003 Unclassified album. Afterwards, the band started cranking into their signature tune, “I Need More Love.”
It quickly started to seem like the band might be burned out from time on the road. They jammed on an instrumental version of Michael Jackson’s “Don’t Stop ‘Til You Get Enough,” but the improvisations were dull and repetitive. Rather than stretch the confines of the structure, the band seemed content to repeat the theme riff ad-nauseum. And while a casual listener might think, “Oh, that’s cool, they’re doing a cover,” I know they’ve played that song tens if not hundreds of times.
By the time the band started playing the John Lee Hooker-esque “Shake Your Hips,” where they invite any girl in the audience to come up on stage, it became evident that this was a bad re-run. They played almost the same set as when I saw them at the Quest last September (which actually was a great show), so for fans, the show had almost no surprises. To me, the songs that they’ve been playing since 2003 seemed a little road-burned; songs like “Nobody,” and “The March,” and covers of “Purple Haze,” and “Whole Lotta Love” start to lose their appeal when you’ve heard them hundreds of times. What’s great about seeing fantastic musicians are the surprises you get, be it a new song; or, failing that, a fresh and new reinterpretation of an old one. Sure, Randolph switched on and off from his racing stripe pedal steel to his sparkly cherry red telecaster, but the vibe didn’t really change—it stayed limp. Aside from the encore, a new funk rocker, the band just didn’t get into the groove. I can’t slam Randolph as much because he is almost always playing interesting things on his instrument, but the bassist, Danyel Morgan, and drummer Marcus Randolph just weren’t hitting it.
In an interview, Randolph has said he has in the ballpark of 40 new songs to put on his new album, which is due out in April. Unfortunately, the audience was treated to less than a handful. According to a Rolling Stone article, the band is looking to do one of those “get a bunch of hit artists to play on my album” things, a la Carlos Santana. But if the live show is any indication, the band needs to polish up the fundamentals before putting icing on the cake.
We took off and went to Gluek’s where the Root City Band was playing none other than “I Need More Love,” and, sadly, their version was a lot more inspired than the original performer’s earlier that night.
Location Info:
First Avenue
Artist Info: Robert Randolph and the Family Band
Share this story:
Article comments powered by Disqus