Terry Adams Quartet @ Wilberts 11/9/07

[Captain Hate]

This isn't really jazz but at least it's not John Hollenbeck.

I probably wouldn't have known about this but for the efforts of my bud Root, because I don't waste my time mucking through the *alternative* press (can we stop calling them that please; I had a bud who used to place ads in them and they're the most money grubbing cockwipes in the area) and the people at Wilberts aren't exactly marketing geniuses (more about that later). Anyway I wasn't sure about the date for this last week at work so I went to their web site and RED FLAGS appeared when I saw that this was somehow tied into the fucking Rock Halls's weekend slobber-fest about their Music Master(bater) series featuring Jerry Lee Lewis. I may have posted here in the past (if not I've complained to enough people that it may as well be online) that this is a sure sign that the Killer is probably using a walker and Depends..... NOT SO After hearing that Jerry Lee had appeared at a Neil Young benefit for a school, I picked up last year's Last Man Standing (which I might write up at length later because there's enough to rant about on it) and he's in fine voice. But there was absolutely no way that this tie-in could be a good thing.

I couldn't talk any of my buds into going to it but I still wanted to see them because of very good experiences seeing NRBQ at the old Wilberts and sub-dumps like the Euclid Tavern. They were playing at 9 and I arrived right on time, which in retrospect was a very bad move. I'd forgotten that the old Wilberts liked to think of itself as a fine dining place where they could soak the swells for an overpriced meal and give them the best seats in a poorly laid out joint, which only went so far because after all IT'S A FUCKING BAR!!!! The only thing I'd seen there before this was Mars Williams Mushroom MAssive, which didn't exactly set attendance records. Bottom line, when I get there the place is filled with the most obnoxious boomer trash imaginable who are immune to the concept of growing old gracefully. I'm thinking where the fuck am I supposed to watch this from so I eventually leaned against a pole next to a table of morons that yacked throughout the first set. Plus it was hot as hell in there.

Anyway the music was ok. The group is a guitar, bass & drums with Terry's arsenal of keyboards. They played a lot of Q songs and threw in one that I hadn't heard before "Get Down Grandpa" that was *very* appropriate. It was a short set of about 45 minutes and Terry is the same as he always has been: He pounds the hell out of the clavinette seemingly randomly but it all sounds good (maybe you *can't* sound bad on one of 'em) and still lurches around like somebody's got him wired (in case you think I'm saying this maliciously, he doesn't look half as stupid as Jagger always has). He still looks like a goofy kid but an older goofy kid. I ended up standing next to the sound guy who was pretty nice and told me the Q had been broken up for over a year. They didn't bring any discs to hawk (another reason I went) so I was outta there almost immediately. I might see the group again if it's not associated with anything to do with the Rock Hall; they aren't as good as the Q, but who is? I hope I never see any of the people in the audience ever again.

[BFrank]

Here's an album I've been meaning to check out for a while (it's on eMusic). Looks INTRIGUING!




Terry has played numerous times with Carla Bley, too.

[Captain Hate]

That's one I was hoping to pick up last night per Root's comments in the
Best of 2007 thread. The time I saw the Q at the old Wilberts, Marshall and the unfortunately late Tyrone Hill were there, probably one of their better post-Ra gigs.

[Root Doctor]

Bummer about the venue, Hate. I have the feeling I'd be even more pissed off about it than you.

I caught Yo La Tengo the other night at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, and they were still high from playing with Terry a few nights earlier in NYC.