Review of Rich Robinson @ Lee's Palace 10/14

[TimmyB]

Rich Robinson @ Lee's Palace Thursday October 14, 2004.

Start time 11:22PM

1. Jam>

2. Know Me

3. Stand Up

4. Falling Away

5. Jam

6. Yesterday I Saw You

7. Veil

8. Leave It Alone

9. Forgiven Song

10. Walking By Myself

11. It's All Too Much (Harrison)

12. Begin>

13. Places

14. Answers

15. Oh No>

16. Fearless (Gilmour/Waters)>

17. It's Over

Encore: 18. Pardon My Heart (Young)

19. It Takes A Lot To Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry (Dylan)

20. Don't Do It (Holland/Dozier/Holland, Jr.)

21. Memo From Turner (Jagger/Richards)

End time 1:46AM (Total time 2 hours and 23 minutes)

The setlist sheet on stage had 'Corrina, Corrina' written in instead of the songs by Neil Young and Bob Dylan. Before Rich Robinson came back out for the encore I put on one of his monitors a multiple request that said "Could you please play 'Pardon My Heart' and/or 'Song Of Love' and/or 'Hand Of Fate.' Thanks " Rich saw it and said "Who put this here?" I replied "I did." Rich then changed the tuning on the guitar he had strapped on and played one of my three requested. It happened to be the one by one of my two all time favorite artists. Coincedently the next song Rich decided to do was a song by my other favorite. Neil and Bob! It doesn't get much better than that.

The show started off with Rich introducing Gordie Johnson to his fellow Canadians by saying "You might not know this guy, he's from Texas." Referring to Gordie's current home state.

After 'Stand Up' Rich said Gordie's "as hot as satan's left ass cheek. He lives in Texas now." And he's now known as "Suckatash Johnson."

Before Rich introduced 'Leave It Alone' he said "It's good to hear (screams for) Big Sugar, instead of 'Wiser Time,' 'Remedy,' 'Jealous Again.' Although I love those songs, I wrote them."

When 'Leave It Alone ended Rich mentioned how there was an uncomfortable silence between the songs. Gordie, I mean Suckatash then said "Might be a Toronto thing. I thought we were over that quiet British conservative attitude...I know you can do it." The crowd cheered and then Rich said "It takes a Canadian to get things going." A person in the crowd then said "Rich is a Canadian!" Rich laughed and said "Yah Man! I'm a Canadian. South Canada. Georgia, Saskatoon."

In the middle of the non album track 'Walking By Myself' Rich switched guitars and told the crowd "We were doing some jazz tuning earlier and it looks really cool to change guitars in the middle of the tune."

Rich hearing more audience screams for Gordie said "'Diggin' A Hole' who the fu©k said that? 'Run Like Hell? 'Ride Like Hell?' I don't know Big Suckatash. Gordie asked me to send this to a fine bunch of fellows called the Trews." Who I was told were in the audience. Then they went into the Beatles song 'It's All Too Much.'

It's almost been three years since the passing of the great George Harrison (November 29, 2001) and I'm glad people are keeping Harrison's spirit alive by covering his songs. I feel that 'It's All Too Much' is a great choice as it's one of those songs that has fallen through the cracks. You always hear 'Taxman,' 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps,' 'Something' or 'My Sweet Lord' never 'It's All Too Much.'

Continuing with the Gordie theme Rich then said "This song is on Big Sugars first record. This is a song called 'Begin.'"

After 'Answers' Rich said "Joe deserves an applause for that one."

As Rich was telling the crowd how the last three songs (before the encore) were going to be played nonstop he said "This is a southern mans interpretation of British pop called 'Oh No.'" Then they went into an amazing bluesy version of Pink Floyd's 'Fearless.' Which reminded me of the time I saw former Black Crowe Marc Ford peform the same song with Blue Floyd in 2000 at the Comfort Zone.

After 'Fearless' and before 'It's Over' Rich to my surprise teased for a good couple of minutes the Black Crowes song 'Soul Singing' off their last studio album 'Lions.'

The last two songs of the night were a couple more amazing covers of the Marvin Gaye song 'Don't Do It' though you could tell this version was inspired by The Band. The show closed off with another obscure cover song, the Rolling Stones song 'Memo From Turner' which was apart of the Mick Jagger film 'Performance.'

It was great to see Rich step up to the mic and sing lead through out an entire show. No he doesn't have the powerful voice his brother Chris has, but that doesn't matter, his vocals fit the music perfectly. Also his guitar work was mesmerizing, he was all over the fretboard playing lick after lick. Rich has truly mastered the instrument as a rhythm player and now on lead as well. Performing as the sole guitarist he had nowhere to hide and didn't need to either. It was also interesting to after years of seeing Gordie Johnson playing guitar in Big Sugar, to watch him perform the bass for an entire show. His playing was very melodic and had several opportunities to solo, specifically on 'Answers.'

The opener was the local band Braveheart Whips. If you like Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band then you might like this band, though it might be hard to find them onstage since the lead vocalist said they change their name on a weekly basis. During their set they did 'I Can't Dance' in tribute to Gram Parsons, who made the song famous to those who love rock and roll. It's also funny to note that both bands ended their sets with songs by the Rolling Stones.

Here's the set for Braveheart Whips.

Start time 10:14PM

1. Fast Train

2. Something You Got

3. The Fever (Southside Johnny and the Asbury Dukes)

4. Men Without Women (Stevie Van Zandt)

5. I'll Be Back (Pat Temple)

6. I Can't Dance (Tom T Hall)

7. Thelma Jane (Tim the guitarist in the band)

8. Shine A Light (Jagger/Richards)

End time 10:57PM (Total time 43 minutes)

[Jaimoe]

Nice review Tim. Great quotes too - or were they paraphrases?

I got back to Toronto ( from Kingston ) at 7pm and I posted that I couldn't make the show. I figured that you were already in-transit to Toronto and missed my post.

One question: How was the crowd in terms of numbers? Lee's holds about 700-800.

[bouche]

I can't believe I have an opportunity to correct a detail.

George Harrison left this world-line on Nov.29, 2001...nearly THREE years ago.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0365600/

[TimmyB]

Nice review Tim. Great quotes too - or were they paraphrases?

I got back to Toronto ( from Kingston ) at 7pm and I posted that I couldn't make the show. I figured that you were already in-transit to Toronto and missed my post.

One question: How was the crowd in terms of numbers? Lee's holds about 700-800.

It's too bad you couldn't make the gig, it was fantastic. Rich's new solo material rocks like the Crowes in a way that Chris's could not. And what covers! The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Marvin Gaye/The Band, The Rolling Stones!

I write a pretty decent short hand, so those quotes were for the most part exact quotes.

As for the crowd it was over half full, but nowhere near capacity. This Rich Robinson show wasn't properly promoted at all. It never had more than a small blurb in the Lee's Palace section in the Now and it didn't even have any advertisments in the window outside of Lee's, which is inexcusable.

[TimmyB]

I can't believe I have an opportunity to correct a detail.

George Harrison left this world-line on Nov.29, 2001...nearly THREE years ago.

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0365600/

My bad, I'll be editing it after this post, though this acknowledgement of it and your previous post will be a constant reminder of my error. I really don't know why I wrote 2002, no defense but it was 6:30AM when I wrote the review.

You are my editor after all bouche!

[guigsy]

sounds like a great show, tim... thanks for the read!

[PhishyK]

hehe... Large Marge - remember Rich Robinson?

LOL

[MuleMomma]

Looks like I shouldn't have left after "Fearless", but it was my intent to see both Rich and The Slip, and I thought Rich was supposed to be done by 12:15-12:30 (as per Lee's website). Except for the mix in the room, I thought they sounded great, and I enjoyed them more than Hookah Brown (though I only saw a song or two coming from work that night). Saw you there Timmy, front and centre, but decided not to disturb you only to say hi and bye.

At one point, I saw Garry Lowe walking through the crowd and wondered whether he might not be invited to take over bass so that Rich and Gordie could trade off some leads...didn't happen huh?

Oh and not sure if it was more crowded earlier on, but from my vantage point, the room looked pretty sparse. I was estimating between 150-200 people, but who knows ::

[TimmyB]

Hey MuleMomma,

I was wondering if you were at the gig or not? I too wanted to go to the Slip, though only after Rich Robinson's set was done, but my girlfriend was tired so we went home. If the Slip performed to anywhere near the time in Toronto as they did in Hamilton (3:04AM), I guess we could have caught an nearly an hour or so of the Slip in Toronto. Oh well.

I'll probably see you at Gov't Mule this upcoming weekend.

[MuleMomma]

Not quite sure how late The Slip played in TO, but I heard Jaydawg tell the bartender at 2am that they would do just one more song...and they did two medium length songs, so I guess the show was over about 2:20...and then kind continuation festivities over at Alexis and Sari's, that the band actually decided to attend. So, it was a fabulous night all round. Wish I could've made it to Hamilton last night, but I had to work, so I'll definitely be seeing you at the Mule ::