John in Atlanta 2/18/96

[KIRKA@aol.com]

John Entwhistle and the John Entwhistle Band
At the Cotton Club, Atlanta, Georgia
February 18, 1996

Here's the particulars and this is all In My Humble Opinion:

The show was opened by Joni's Butterfly.  A four piece band that ranged from
roots rocks to some heavy metal.  Not bad as far as an opener goes.   They
still have some work to do to become an opener.  It would be nice to be able
to learn from John Entwhistle.

John and his band came out at about 11:10pm and played until 1am with a short
5 minute break between the main set and the encore.

Set list
(sorry, I've never been a 'words" man, so I also don't pay much attention to
lyrics or the titles.  I hope I don't embarrass myself.  Please correct
anything I left out or said incorrectly.

Heaven & Hell
Have Enough
? Off Who by Numbers
Trick of the Light
?For the Rockers
The Real
Me
?new
Boris the Spider
Is There life After Love
You
Last Laugh
My Wife
Long Live Rock

--encore--
Summertime Blues
Shakin' All Over

The players
Alan St. John on Keyboards(Uncle Al)
Godfrey Townshend on lead guitar
Steve Longo on drums
and duh, John Entwhistle on Bass

Please feel free to correct any misspellings.

They had a bunch of Tshirts for the tour.  I thought they were a little
expensive, but that's just where my financial situation is right now.  I
would have considered a $15 Tshirt too much for my budget last night.   They
had a nice logo on the Tshirts and nice graphics.   Prices ranged from
$25-$50.  

An excellent crowd.   I was thinking that a Sunday night gig may only bring
out a few fans.  But I was wrong.   There must have been 300 people in there.
 Place holds 400 packed and 600 at that Fire Marshalls's worst nightmare
size.  The crowd was very enthusiastic.  Looked like 3 guys to every girl.
 No one got out of hand and security was pretty lax.

All in all, I'd give the show a 8 on a scale of 1 to 10.  The club is
familiar.  I think they called some of the seating reserved seating so they
could charge $15.00 instead of the originally listed $12.  The reserved
seating plan was lame though.  The reserved seats were in the back of the
place.   There was the usual dance floor in front of the reserved seats and
most everyone was plastered against the stage barricade to get a closer view?
  How was the seating at other venues?  We ended up standing off to the side
stage left. 

The mix was quiet and a little mushy through Trick of the Light.   At Trick
though, the volume was audibly cranked up.  For this fan, I loved it.
 Anything The Who did, ought to be heard good and loud.   But then I've been
a Who fan since the 70's!   Was it not the Ramones in Rock n Roll High School
that when putting the volume of their music against the industry standards,
picked THE WHO as the loudest band in Rock n Roll?

Although loud, the mix was fairly clean as I moved around to the soundboard.
  Off to the side,, it was understandable murkier.  I think it had to do with
the positioning of the club's midrange and tweeters.

I liked the new songs.   I went with NO expectations as I knew I wasn't
seeing The Who.  I personally thought the newer songs were a little "popish."
 In one listening, it's hard to get a grip on how I felt about them.   But I
do now want to go out and get the new CD and see how they grow on me.   I
think many will.

On the new songs they did, I found myself getting caught up at staring at
John and his playing.  I almost found myself transported back to the late
60's(although thos memories are a bit..er...uh....fuzzy).   Feeling the power
of John's playing was well worth the dough for the tickets.

John's playing was just phenomenal.  I was pleased when John turned up his
amp right before Boris.   I had thought he needed to be brought up in the
mix, but when he turned up his amp, I knew he felt that was too.   After
that, I could clearly hear his bass just barely over the rest.   That's what
I went to the show for was John.  John seemed a bit more comfortable after he
turned up his amp too.  More settled, less over playing.  I guess that he
couldn't hear himself in the monitor mix.  

I don't know if it was The House soundman or his own soundman, but they need
to get it straight that when John asks for more of him in the mix, that he
gets that. They seemed to have some problem with the lighting guy too.   But
ever band I have seen at the Cotton Club has had the same problem.  I hear
that small venues don't have the cash to do a good light show.  I have seen
those clubs that TRULY want a decent light show(meaning lights on each member
when they are playing within band and then some singular solo lighting-is
that too much to ask?) and they keep it simple but those who are soling move
to the spot on the stage where the solo light shines!

But the lack of good lighting didn't really effect the show at all.  A little
better lighting on the bass player(although truly the star here would seem
odd wouldn't it?) would have been nice but no big deal.

The best part for me was the extended rhythm section solo between John and
drummer Steve Longo.  Godfrey and Alan left the stage to the two during
Shakin' All Over.   To me that's what music is all about...the interaction.
 The Ox was cooking.  Steve's style was very much like Keith Moon's.  A very
rolling style of drum playing. 

Godfrey had his own style which  I think was very important.   If he tried to
be Daltrey or Pete, he would have been cheating everyone all around.  But he
maintained his own style and pulled it off.   I belive most of the singing
was shared between Godfrey and Steve with John, of course, on all of his
vocals for The Who Classics.  The stage left stack of stage monitors blocked
our view of Alan, but he completed the rhythm section very well too.  A
little low in the mix, but then again, I was there to see John!  SO that was
cool!

Well that's all the notes I took for the evening.  Thanks John for making yet
another birthday of mine a special musical one!  Break a leg on the rest of
the tour.  I missed your telephone interview with Kaedy Kiely on 96Rock last
week!  :-(  Waaaa  SO everyone look out for John to do similar interviews
before shows in your town.  Hell print this and other reviews and fax them to
your local radio stations!   They'd appreciate the info and I'd bet, so would
John!


Keeping the faith

Kirk Anderson
KirkA@aol.com