1997 Robin Trower Tour Pics

Review of Robin Trower at the Ballard Firehouse, June 13, 1997

Well, Robin may have turned 50 thus year, but his playing is better than it ever has been. Friday's show was sprinkled with brilliant moments, as he pulled trick after trick out of his Fender, ranging from the ear-shattering to the heart-wrenchingly exquisite. But I get ahead of myself.

The Ballard Firehouse, for those of you who don't know it, is a converted old firestation that now has a bar at one end, and a smallish stage at the other, with room for a few hundred sweaty souls inbetween. The stage itself is only raised about three feet, and the audience can crowd right up to the edge -- as one of the security folks said, "a nice, friendly atmosphere -- just the way Robin likes it!!". In the front lobby, tour shirts (black or white, with the cover of Someday Blues on the front, and the tour cities on the back) and copies of the new CD were being sold, and copies of the new newsletter ("Trower Power") were free for the taking.

The opening act was Trust Me, a four piece playing competent '70s hard rock cover tunes: these included Good Times, Bad Times; Cold Gin; Mississippi Queen; California Man; and the closer, Highway Star!! They're not going to be the Next Big Thing (as Dianne said of the guitarist after HS, "he's no Ritchie Blackmore"), but they can hold their own with any other bar band out there, and they had the growing crowd responding appreciatively. They certainly managed to sell more beer, which is all you can wish of a good bar act, and got the crowd going, which is what one hopes of an opening act.

After their short set, they briskly cleared their gear away in order to make room for the second opener, another local act named Indica. This was another four piece, playing uninspired sludge vaguely based on the Seattle grunge sound, but without any of the elements that made some of the bands stand out from the crowd.

All their songs (save one) sounded as if they were based on the same riff -- certainly the bass line was almost exactly the same every time, and the guitarist was lost in fuzzbox heaven. His solos mostly consisted of frantic strumming, much whammy bar pulling, and sweating as profusely as possible, casting the droplets over the crowd as if it were holy water. And picks. Lots of yellow picks, tossed like rose petals into the crowd at center stage.

Mind you, there are those who like this band; there was an energetic group of fans pogoing and headbanging for all they were worth under those holy showers, and they have a fan in Howard Lees (guitarist from Heart), who came onstage to join them for the final two songs, adding his own squeals to the cacaphony. But most of the audience around me was very nonplussed by the whole thing.

After about 45 minutes, their set was done (complete with a minor scuffle in the pogoing area, which amounted to a torn shirt and a lost watch), and their gear was cleared away to reveal the stack of Marshalls waiting for magic to amplify. The techies did the obligatory drum tapping and "One! Two!" in the microphones, and then retreated from the stage. It was now about ten minutes past 11 p.m., the room was now packed with wall-to-wall people, and it was time for the feature attraction.

And, with little fanfare, out came the band. Robin was reunited with his support musicians from 20th Century Blues (Livingston Brown on 6-string bass, and Mayuyu on drums), and he came out stylishly dressed in black pants, shirt, and tie, with a light blue jacket to match his powder blue Stratocaster. A couple of moments to strap on the guitars, and the band exploded into the familiar chugging shuffle of "Too Rolling Stoned", amidst thunderous acclaim from the audience.

Here's the setlist (copied verbatim from the "Robin Trower Set List 6/97" I took from the monitor after the show):

2 Rolling Stoned
Rise Up Like The Sun
I Want U 2 Love Me
Prisoner Of Love
Secret Place
Promise You The Stars
Next In Line (new)
Day Of The Eagle
Bridge Of Sighs
20th Century Blues
Sweet Little Angel
Little Bit Of Sympathy
Crossroads
Extermination Blues
Shining Through

As you can tell, most of the set was made up of songs from 20th Century Blues and the new release, Someday Blues, along with a couple of standards.

Robin sang the vocals on the new songs, and he split the vocals on Extermination Blues (which makes sense, as he re-did the song on the new record, and sang the vocals on the new version.) As well, he used a very clean (and loud :) sound, only using a wah-wah pedal in a few choice places, and a chorus for Secret Place. He also switched to a sunburst Strat for that song, but then reverted back to the blue guitar for the remainder of the show.

He was obviously enjoying himself, smiling expansively between songs as the audience roared its approval. It also came through in his playing, with extended solos on every song -- Secret Place and Bridge Of Sighs were particular standouts; this being the best rendition of BoS I have ever heard -- while the supporting musicians provided solid backup.

They used dynamics to great advantage, and remained nearly impeccably in sync with Robin's changes, even when he obviously dropped a note and began adlibbing instead. And this is from a band at the START of a tour!! It's as if they had been playing together for several months, not just a few days (Robin just came off supporting Bryan Ferry). Obviously the vacation from each other (Someday Blues was recorded with Reg Isadore, Paul Page, and Nicky Brown) hasn't hurt a bit. To paraphrase an album title, When They Rock, They Rock, And When They Roll, They Roll.

After nearly two hours, the show was over, and Robin retreated from the stage completely drenched, as were the members of the audience. The only incident had been when security rushed into the crowd to find the bozo taking flash pictures (afterwards, the security dude leaned over to me and said "hurry up and finish taking your pictures, Robin asked that there be no cameras." Robin could hardly have missed my lens poked into his face at every possible opportunity -- how often do you get to be directly in front of your favorite guitar player playing live, and with a camera in your hands? -- but I never got any more flak about it, once they saw I had no flash unit. Otherwise, the audience had been vocal and appreciative, but well-behaved; they were there to enjoy the music.

Fairly soon after the show ended, the room had cleared out a fair bit, and we finally had room to breathe. But the fans hadn't gone far -- they were now all lined up outside in front of the limo, waiting patiently for Robin, who had promised to meet them and sign autographs. Since it was nearing 1:30 a.m., and we still had a three hour drive home ahead of us, I reluctantly decided not to get Robin to sign the setlist I had grabbed, and we headed out into the Seattle early morning darkness.

Well, I urge everyone to get a ticket to this tour -- the man is at the peak of his form. Like a fine wine, good musicians just get better the longer they hone their craft on their instrument. And Robin is one of the best.

Lonewolf (Wolf Schneider)