The Coach House / July 3 2008

Review by verbal kent (Switch to
)
7/04/2008

Tell you what - if you like rock and roll you need to get someplace and see Todd's tour behind his yet unreleased "Arena" album. (Which I guess means he is actually touring in front of his yet unreleased "Arena" album).

I don't want to get over the top - but take a guy that has been making everything from pop to progressive to rock music for 40 years, that has a poets eye for the beauty and frailty of life and a cynics eye for the b*llsh*t with which we all get duped into wasting the only commodity that really means anything during our 4 score years or so (that would be time), that counts his primary guitar influences as Clapton and Jeff Beck and is still looking for the lick, the riff, the turn around and the note that bring transcendence . . . and lets just say you gonna get your moneys worth.

He played the entire album at The Coach House in San Juan Capistrano last night and all I can say is - "It aint f*ck*ng nostalgia." This is a 60 year old guy that was there at the formation of most of what happened in the rock music scene in the early 60's and that still uses the rock / pop genre to either ask "Hey, what the f*ck is going on?" or to tell you "Here's what the f*ck is going on." I would go on a limb and say this is the most powerful & authoritative use of this genre of music to explore life and livin' that I have heard in a long, long time.

What great writing (lyrics and music). What a band. What a set. I will go on record as predicting the new songs Courage, Bardo and Mountaintop are as good as the very best of what anyone else puts out this year (or next).

Besides his guitar playing dude has always had one of the best voices ever - and it aint any worse for all the years and the experiences that find themselves getting expression in the phrasings and nuances of his singing.

Always an innovative guy with recording & producing Todds new album is being released through his website as a download 1st. Nice ahead of the curve move. You don't have to spend any money on gas driving down to get it.

Todd covering one of my favorite songwriters:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CVclsSHwwcs&feature=related

In closing if you haven't listened to his previous release 2004's "Liars" you need to get it. Easily the best album of that year. (Here's some reviews:

http://www.google.com/reviews?cid=ccd7853bbd18753e)

And a final treat: Black Maria at Santa Cruz in 2007:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZFdjYb2Fy4


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7/03/2008 - The Coach House - San Juan Capistrano, CA

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