Phillyist Framed Returns!
Across the Ist-a-Verse
Yo, Philly in the News
Photoist
Ah, the Electric Factory. We knew it was only a matter of time before they f'ed up another concert experience for us. Last Thursday's concert, headlined by Michael Franti & Spearhead, was scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. With four artists on the bill, and us not really caring about the lowest-billed performer (Cherine Anderson), we figured 8:45 was a perfectly reasonable time to arrive. And it would have been, except for a couple things. The Electric Factory clearly underestimated the number of people who had purchased tickets through will-call, together with the number of night-of-show sales there would be. The upshot of the Factory's piss-poor planning is that the box office was understaffed, and we found ourselves waiting in line to pick up our will-call tickets for almost 45 minutes. On top of that, the security person who was trying to keep the line orderly seemed to delight in the fact that so many people had to wait to get into the show.
As if that weren't enough, it's clear that Cherine Anderson either performed earlier than the 8:30 start time, did not perform at all, or performed the shortest set in the history of concerts. We know this, because by the time we finally got our tickets from the box office and got inside at about 9:10, not only had we completely missed Boots Riley (whom we'd really wanted to see), but Tom Morello (MySpace) was already at least a couple songs into his set. Leave it to the Electric Factory to screw up what had promised to be an outstanding evening.
Once we got ourselves settled in to focus on Tom Morello's music, we quickly realized two things. First, Morello is an absolutely phenomenal musician. He's one of a small handful of people who can get his guitar to make sounds that have absolutely no business coming out of a guitar. Second, Morello isn't half as good a singer as he is a guitarist. On "Saint Isabelle," which Morello performed with only his voice, a harmonica, and a drum, the unsteadiness of his voice really shone through. It's one of those weaknesses that's well-hidden behind multiple takes and well-thought arrangements on Morello's studio albums, but that can't be hidden live.
Morello's vocal shortcomings create a real problem for his Nightwatchman persona, in which he performs his 21st century equivalent to old-fashioned protest songs. He seeks to be a modern-day Joe Hill or Woody Guthrie, if you will. The core of this type of music is the singer-songwriter approach. Morello's songs, from a writing perspective, are effective, and sometimes inspiring, modern protest songs. We've got to admit that we think the songs would lose something if sung by anyone but Morello. We just wish he could sing them better.
Fortunately, from a writing perspective, the songs are damn good, and Morello's affable personality and ability to work a crowd made up for his weakness as a singer. The setlist consisted of Morello's Nightwatchman songs, with a covers of "The Ghost of Tom Joad" and "This Land Is Your Land" thrown in for good measure. The covers were respectable, if not particularly fantastic. One highlight was a song—we don't know the name of it—for which Morello invited Boots Riley to the stage. Apparently, Morello and Riley have collaborated on album that will be released in 2009, and we'll definitely be on the lookout for that one, as it was a great hip-hop/rock crossover song that really caught our ear. (You might be saying, "But isn't that just the same as what Rage Against the Machine does?" This song wasn't anywhere near as heavy as Rage's material.)
All in all, even though Morello's performance wasn't perfect, thanks to the quality of his original songs, as well as his engaging personality and humorous, thoughtful between-song banter created an entertaining, we had a generally enjoyable concert experience—despite the Factory's best effort to mess it up.
Photo by author, all rights reserved.
add to stumble upon
add to reddit
tweet this
post to facebook
Post a comment (Comment Policy)