The T-bird torch
hasn’t been completely passed just yet. Yeah, Fran and Jimmie split a long time
ago and Keith swapped his bass for a harp and a halo. But as long as Kim Wilson
is up front croonin’ and munchin’
on the tin sandwich, it’ll be The
Fabulous Thunderbirds. Surrounded by new blood — save for keyboard legend
and on-again, off-again Blaster Gene Taylor — The Thunderbirds rocked the
High Falls Festival Site in front of an enormous crowd. Dressed like one of
Batman’s arch-rivals, guitarist Nick Curran slung and sung like Johnny Guitar
and proved it twice with his own “Shot Down” and a cool stab at Little
Richard’s “Keep OnKnockin,”
which included those sensationally flamboyant “Wooooos!”
Wilson is a
master of circular breathing and played an extended solo — with one
continuous breath — toward the end of the set that easily lasted 15 minutes.
The band played long into and after the sunset illuminated the sextet rather
cinematically.
The Atomic Swindlers done swindled me. I love this band and was looking forward to the acoustic set
they promised. However, when I rolled into Whiskey on Saturday, the only thing
acoustic were the guitars — and I’m pretty sure they were plugged in as well.
Regardless, the band played well, though the sound was a little spotty at
times; lots of hard surfaces will do that I suppose. Their songs in any
environment, at any volume, played in whatever medium are simply fantastic. So
maybe I wasn’t swindled outright, just a little misled. But April can lie to me
anytime she likes and it’ll sound better than most musicians’ truth.
Hit The Bug Jar
toward the end of the night in time to catch Burning 2 Entyce’s last two songs. It was
super heavy and heard with the double-kick pummeling like a Gatling gun. The
singer raged and paced the stage roaring in a voice twice his size, sounding
like a cross between Darth Vader and Cookie Monster. It was intense and I
certainly would’ve liked to hear more. Frankly, I can’t get enough of anything.
This article appears in Aug 16-22, 2006.
