Last Show in St. Louis

When I was visiting Alabama back in May I was having a conversation with some old friends about music. One of my friends told us in her heavy southern accent that her life-long dream was to learn how to play "boogie woogie piana". I thought about her last Wednesday when I was watching Chuck Berry and his band at the Duck Room in Blueberry Hill. Chuck has a standing gig there every month and I have been saying for four years that I was going to go. I was glad before seeing this performance that I had recently watched the documentary Hail Hail Rock n Roll which was filmed twenty years ago in St. Louis. It explained a lot about Chuck's performance. Basically Chuck Berry does whatever the hell he wants to and his band has to watch him intently to keep up. Chuck's son plays guitar in his band and also acts as guitar tech. When Chuck broke a string, Chuck Jr. took the guitar from his dad, handed him another, and exited the stage to re-string. Chuck's daughter also performs with the band, singing the blues and playing harmonica. She is a force of nature. The other members of his band, including a boogie woogie piano player have been playing with him for a long time. While I imagine at 80, Chuck's performance is not as energetic as it used to be, it was an amazing night of blues and old time rock and roll. To hear him play the beginning of Johnny B. Goode sent the room into a frenzy. The audience included college students as well as people who could have been those college students' great grandparents. It was truly an experience. --J

Southern Culture on the Skids in St. Louis

As you can read from the earlier post, I have been so over the news and down on the current state of affairs in this country. I needed something to take my mind off of these seemingly unfixable problems. I needed beer, Bermuda shorts, big hair, and bowling shirts. I needed Southern Culture on the Skids. My friend M went with me to the show. They were playing in the Duck Room at Blueberry Hill which is a small basement venue in The Loop in University City and it was a packed house. After a few drinks I got over being nervous that she wouldn't like them.

From the first note of "Too Much Pork for Just One Fork", we wouldn’t think about anything but having fun until the end of the night. SCOTS blazed through a non-stop set full of favorites like "Firefly", "Liquored Up and Laquered Down", "Corn Liquor", and "Doublewide", a song about “upward mobility”. The crowd loved them and hometown fixture, Beatle Bob was right there on the side of the stage adding his own special groovy moves to the set. A particularly loaded female fan kept yelling at Rick to play the fried chicken song. He responded with, “Hold on darling, suck on that beer a little longer. We’ll get to that.” SCOTS also did some great covers including "(I Never Promised You a) Rose Garden".

SCOTS wrapped up the set with "Daddy Was a Preacher but Mama was a Go Go Girl" and then "Eight Piece Box" where a bevy of female fans jumped on the stage to either throw or attempt to seductively eat fried chicken. Beatle Bob however, had grabbed what looked like a breast out of the chicken box that was being passed around and hunkered down eating it like it was dinner theatre.

If you like a party crowd and surfer/rockabilly/country/roots rock music, it’s a must event. It made me remember all of the campy crazy things about this country that I love. --J

Out on a School Night...

Heartless Bastards got added to the Duck Room’s calendar last week and I thought I would go check them out. It’s a small club in the basement of a popular restaurant here in University City where Chuck Berry plays every month as well as other bands.

I got there in the middle of the opening band’s set. It was a group called Male Models, also a three piece like Heartless Bastards. There was a farfisa organ involved and, by the end of the set, every member of the band was playing a key instrument, but I liked it. Male Models commented more than once that Heartless Bastards were gonna come out and “blow our faces off”. I thought to myself, “Oh really?”

As for Heartless Bastards, they didn’t blow my face off but they were good. I liked the heavy bass, the mid-tempo groove, and I liked Erika Wennerstrom’s vocals better live, covered up a bit by the instruments. On their records they are a little to front and center for my taste because I think her voice is a little odd. I can’t take a lot of it. Highlights of the set were Done Got Old, Brazen, and All This Time. I didn’t make it until the bitter end of the set. It has been a super long week. As I was leaving the club, I looked over at the merch guy and I wish I could have taken his picture without him knowing it. He was sitting under what looked like a spotlight of his own, with his dark, wavy, boho hair hanging in one eye, reclined in his seat and looking like he was way over it. It just struck me as very funny because the light over his head made him look like he was on display and the look on his face made it look like being in a spotlight was the last thing he would want to do.

About the venue, it was a great, intimate setting. And it really is all about ducks from the framed duck comic books, shelves full of duck statues, and this entry way lined with pics of ducks. I'll give it an unexpected. --J

Hail! Hail! Rock 'N Roll

As I sat at home in my pajamas last night watching the season finale of Project Runway, a most exciting musical event was taking place in St. Louis. Chuck Berry celebrated his 80th birthday with a standing room only performance at Blueberry Hill in University City. Chuck plays once a month at Blueberry Hill. I guess I need to stop taking it for granted that he plays every month and go see him. When I saw that last night’s show was being billed as a birthday celebration, I immediately went to the Rolling Stones website to see where they were playing, anticipating a possible Keith appearance. Keith didn’t make an appearance, but Aerosmith’s Joe Perry did. If you would like to read the local newspaper’s coverage of the event, click here. Also, if you can't get to Blueberry Hill to see Chuck perform in person, a four-disc DVD set of the documentary, Hail! Hail! Rock 'N Roll, was recently released. It is pretty amazing to think that someone who is 80 years old is still putting on one hell of a show. –J