slammed alive
Back Door Slam, Gotta Leave
I finally, finally, finally got to hear Back Door Slam live this week in Denver. Since catching them by chance on the radio last April, I’ve been listening to their debut (and only) album in steady rotation, blogging about them here, grabbing new videos whenever possible, dropping CDs on unsuspecting friends, and generally telling everyone I could about this band. They were supposed to play here 6 weeks ago, but a surprise chance to open for Kid Rock knocked that gig off the map. Bummed about that, but so glad they made up the gig at a later date. Don’t know if that’s a typical thing to do, but I and the rest of the crowd for this sold-out show certainly appreciated it.
Some audio after the jump:
First of all, they are as good live as I thought they’d be. Show was mostly a mix of songs from their album, and covers of blues tunes, all changed up and extended as you’d expect with a living, breathing band. But the real treat was three new songs that they’re developing for their next album. I’ve always thought that was the sensible way to develop an album - write the music, play it, change it, let it grow, somewhere along the way record it, and of course, let it keep growing on the road.
The venue was a cool little modern nightclub setting, with table service and no seat more than about 40 feet from the stage. We were way off to the side, which didn’t actually effect sight lines much, but I’m wondering if it effected sound. There was a lot of distortion that I don’t think was all intentional, and this venue is plugged for having good sound. I’ll have to follow up there with another show to test that.
The show itself: Davy Knowles was just terrific on guitar. It’s clearly a second language for him, improvising, stretching out, going for broke. Comparisons are cheap and easy to overdo, but I can say I haven’t enjoyed a guitarist this much since SRV. He doesn’t have the same sound, but he has the same way of speaking through his instrument. That’s the highlight, but he’s also a singer that needs no apology - passionate, expressive, musical. Ross Doyle and Adam Jones, on drums and bass, are rock solid and more. As usual, I feel incompetent to say much about drums, but I know enough to say that Doyle gets the job done and makes each song it’s own self. That should be the obvious thing, but lots of blues drumming all sounds alike. I was hoping that in the live show Jones would take a solo, because I think he’s got it in him. It didn’t happen, but there were enough interesting fills to keep my bass needs satisfied.
I’ve posted samples from their album and some regular covers in earlier posts (more than once), so here I’ll just give you a look at the new material. I look at this like new wine: Try it while it’s new, spend the winter speculating how it will mature and evolve, then enjoy it again when it’s fully ripened. A little musical Neuwein, so to speak.
The first, “Country Girl”, is inspired by Knowles’ sister’s move from the Isle of Man to London, and “Won’t Let it Happen”, which leads this post. At least, I think that’s what he said he called it.
Country Girl
Won’t Let it Happen
Tear Down the Walls
(my recording is marred with apologetic waitress chatter, so I’ll post a video)
Of their originals, the highlight was an extended version of “Gotta Leave”, my favorite in any case. Of the covers, it was fun to hear “Riding with the King”, not just because I heard John Hiatt do it live a few weeks ago, but because the Slam guys also heard him when they were at Telluride last month. Made it seem like a continuing musical conversation. But the highlight of the covers was, for me, the thirteen minute “What in the World” that closed the show:
From my perch as a fan and music lover, I’m amazed that they have time to be developing new material. I can only think that the constant collaboration must be feeding them. When I last checked in on their website, back in June, they’d recently played Bonnaroo and a Chicago festival, and had opened for Buddy Guy in NOLA. Since then, they’ve continued to tour their own gigs, opened for Kid Rock for a string of shows, for Joe Bonamassa in Dallas, for Jakob Dylan at Antone’s in Austin, and played both the Telluride Blues Festival and the Austin City Limits Festival, and who knows what else. Somewhere in there they shared a stage with Keb’ Mo’ who, according to their tour diary, helped Knowles work out some song. In a week or so, they head out to open for Gov’t Mule on their fall Kinder Tour. And they somehow grabbed a few days in LA to hole up and write. All this while touring in a van.
Their website shows a photo of a sign at Telluride that reads “Everyone deserves music.” It’s not their sign, but the fact that they took the photo and reprinted it with the caption “Ain’t THAT the trooth?!!”, makes me think it’s a big part of why they’re out their busting it. Making live music is hard work, but, man, I’m grateful for the people doing it.
Here’s the show in FLAC files, but buy the album, “Roll Away” and get to a show. You won’t regret it.
Outside Woman Blues
Heavy on My Mind
Riding with the King
Gotta Leave
Hoochie Coochie Man
Come Home
Tear Down the Walls #
Back Door Slam
Country Girl#
Won’t Let it Happen#
Almost Cut my Hair
It’ll All Come Around
What in the World
Encores:
I’ve Been Down so Very Long
Red House
# unrecorded originals
categories: downloads, live, music
tags: Back Door Slam, blues
posted by boolz at 10:34 pm
thanks for this post, we in the UK have yet to see BDS play - they have been in the US so long we are starting to wonder if they will ever get back here ! but their music travels through the web and occassional plays on UK radio such as Bob Harris and Paul Jones. The prospect of getting a new album before we get to hear them play the first one live is a mixed feeling for me… I really wanted to have the early experiences folks in the USA have had. C’est la vie as they say somewhere in Europe… and thanks again for the post. Please - everyone - spread the word about Back Door Slam they are so much more interesting than most young indy bands.
xJo
Imagine my excitement when I came in here this morning and found this. I’m due to go see BDS and Government Mule on the same bill here in Boston on Halloween night.
I am going to read, listen to and savor this…thank you so much!
Wonderful review! You really did it up right! Special thanks for including the set list. I have a good imagination, so I’m listening to the concert in my head right now.
Best music I’ve heard in years!
What a fantastic review! Hoping you would allow us to post the link for this on the Slammer HQ page for other Slammers to enjoy! Will wait to hear from you first. Thanks for a wonderful read!
Of course, feel free to post it anywhere someone would enjoy it. Nice to see some other Slam fans around. I’m surprised to hear they’ve not toured the UK, but then, I’ve not been watching long.
Nice review, and good to hear they are doing well. I haven’t forgotten them — took their CD (along with others) on a trip with a friend last weekend. She only had a tape player in her car. Had I asked, I could have made a tepe and then given it to her. Love the songs you posted. Are flac files bigger than MP3s? Could I even play them? These are things I wonder.
Karen, there are some programs that plan FLAC directly, but the usual thing is to decode them into their source, in this case, lossless 16 bit .wav files. The wav’s can be played in iTunes or on your iPod or similar player. They are fairly large files, so you may want to convert those into mp3, which you can do right in iTunes. I should put up a tutorial somewhere, now that I’m posting FLACs, but in the meantime, you need to download a converting program. Here are a couple of free ones.
T&Jam recommended FLAC Frontend for PC users, which you can get here:
FLAC Frontend
I’m on a Mac, and I like xACT, which you can get here:
download xACT
Both use a drag and drop interface. Open the app, make sure you’re in a window that has a decode button, drag in your files and hit decode. If there’s more than one output format, choose one you know.
One good thing about getting a FLAC decoder: it’s a step towards access to the whole world of bit torrent downloads, since they almost always come as FLAC files.
Thanks for the audio from the show. The sound is great.
Once again, thanks for sharing your recording! I just saw these kids Friday in SF and they blew me away.
Wow, what a great video of the show and a pleasure to read. They really are a band that you need to experience live.
(Linda T. –> I will be at the Boston show on Halloween as well.)
I meant to say what a great “review” of the show….I had just watched the video and had video on my mind.
Thanks Boolz and T&Jam for the advice. Now I’m weighing the idea of getting a computer at home. Don’t want to go any further on my work computer, but my home has been a technology-free zone for me. I spend a lot of time most weekends thinking about the blogs and the people I care about on them, but am pretty happy with keeping technology out of it. I’ll probably cave, though.
Thank you kindly for the flacs my friend. BDS is by far one of the most exciting new bands out today. Plus you got the new tracks too! I have a copy of the Ski Jam show from back in January that I’ve listened to easily 100+ times.
Their cover of Rory Gallagher’s version of What in the World kills. . . . .and Rory’s song Goin’ to my Hometown is spot on. For a group that does 60% cover material - they are amazing.
I just saw these guys last night as the opener for Gov’t Mule. It made me want to see them as their own act, in a smaller club. Being an opening band can sometimes be harsh — there weren’t many people in the audience, but those who were there gave them an enthusiastic reception. They played a short set — no more than about 30 minutes — but the capper was that they played “What in the World” at the end and I found myself tearing up, because it was just so damn good.
I bought the CD after they were done and had the guys sign it. My goodness, they are young — Davey looks about the same age as my 16 year old!
I may try to download the files here but I’m a bit FLAC-impaired right now. I downloaded FLAC Frontend, but I think I need that tutorial written in about 6th grade level English. Most of it goes way over my head.
Linda, thanks for the review! I was hoping you’d drop in and tell us about it. I read a couple of fan reviews of the Mule mega-set, but they didn’t mention the opener. I’m really glad to hear it was a good set and you enjoyed it. They do do a great “What in the World”, don’t they?
What did you think of Mule? I wish this tour was coming near enough to me to catch it. But it’s getting taped like crazy, so I’ll be able to hear it that way. You picked a good one to go to - from what I’ve read, the Halloween show had special features not planned for elsewhere on the tour.
The Mule sets were outrageous. First set was one long jam for over an hour and a half, most of it instrumental. Warren Haynes is a force of nature, I swear. The only “distinct” song I recognized was “Brand New Angel”.
Then after a break they came out for the second set, which was almost two hours of Pink Floyd music. Mostly stuff from Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here. They brought out a sax player and three backup singers for this part. Man, I think I sang myself hoarse on “Shine On You Crazy Diamond” (everyone was up on their feet and singing for this part, it was one big party). They even had a big pink pig balloon blown up in the area where I was sitting. It went well with the wild Halloween costumes worn by many of the audience members.
After that was done they came out for the encore, more Mule music capped by the most blistering guitar solo I’ve probably ever heard live.
I was completely spent by the time it was done. Mule started at 8:30 and the concert ended at about 12:30 AM. Almost four hours of music. In this day and age of paying a hundred bucks to see an hour and a half concert, what a treat it was to experience almost 4 and a half hours of some of the best music I’ve ever heard — for 30 bucks! Best music bargain of 2008, hands down.
I’d love to know where you’re finding the taping of these concerts — it would be great to listen to or get a download. There was a taper who had his mics strapped to the chair right behind me and he mentioned something about “etree”? They were also filiming an official DVD of this concert so I’ll check the Mule sites to see when that’s available. It’ll be worth the price.
That sounds so cool. Here’s the one uploaded taping I know about. It’s at bt.etree.org, which may or may not mean it’s your taper, since that’s a common repository. His comments mention a “drunken wookie” singing along. Do you have anything you’re not telling us?
Gov’t Mule at Orpheum
It doesn’t include the BDS set. With the Mule show so long, and tapers naturally concerned about battery life and file storage, I’m worried that many may not try to grab the opener. I’m sure T&Jam will come through, if she has a chance to catch the show near her.
By the way, I found out that the BDS set you heard included a song I’d not heard yet at all (they’ve not recorded it), so I dug up a video - it’s in the latest post, “Coming Up for Air”
Hah! I think that link was the taper behind me because the “drunken wookie” was across the aisle from both of us. LOL
In a “truth is stranger than fiction moment” I got into a conversation with the guy in front of me during the intermission. He mentioned that he was from Birmingham AL. I told him I’d made a trip down there back in 2007 and enjoyed going to several of the clubs. He asked what concert had brought me there and when I mentioned Hicks, it turns out that they have a mutual friend in the radio business. He’s met Taylor a couple of times and saw him harping with the Allman Brothers a few weeks ago when they were in town. What goes around comes around! I so rarely talk about Hicks in public (long story), but this was a nice connection to make.
Thanks for the link — I still have to unravel the mystery of bit-torrents and flac files, since it seems to be the wave of the future. I think I need “Bit-torrents for Dummies”.
I, too, was at the Halloween show and it was awesome. This was my third time seeing BDS. They did a nice job - Davy did look a little nervous during their first song though. Asked him about it afterwards and yes he was quite nervous. My sister-in-law, who is a Mule fanatic was blown away by these guys - she really can’t get over Davy’s voice. Add another fan to the fold. We will also be going to the show in Northampton on the 9th - can’t wait for that.
The Mule sets were great. The surround sound was awesome, and the laser show was worth the price of admission, as was Matt Abts in a pink disco suit.
I guess Davy sang Almost Cut My Hair with Warren last night. This show is now on the bt.etree.org website for downloading.
Another source for FLAC downloads is Dimeadozen.org. There is a really good quality BDS show available there from this summer taped at the Camden, NJ music fair - almost sounds like it came from the soundboard. Dime can be tough to sign up for - they limit how many members they have but keep trying - they are constantly purging inactive members. Lots of other cool shows, too. ( I actually find the Jimi Hendrix show I went to at Boston Garden in 1970!) I’m in my fifties and if I can figure out FLACS you can, too. I had one of my kids show me and it’s easy once you get the hang of it. I am a huge fan of Joe Bonamassa and there is a lot of his stuff on Dime.
Nice to find some Slam fans - not much activity on their forum.
Thanks for the tip-off about last night’s gig - I’m downloading as i type. I echo your encouragement about getting into torrents and FLACs. I put it off for a long time, but finally just downloaded the recommended software, ditzed around a little and found it was pretty straightforward. That said, I’m dragging my heels about figuring out the uploading/seeding aspects of it. I do need to get onto Dime, but haven’t carved out the needed time to pound them to nab a registration slot.
I really like Joe Bonamassa, too, but he’s another guy I’ve not managed to catch live yet. Sloe Gin is a terrific album - I did a short review on it here last winter. And I’ve caught some of his radio show when I had a rental car with Sirius radio on a trip last summer. Interesting guy.
Try the Dime Wiki when you finally get on - it explains a lot about uploading-downloading and staying connected. Some of the difficulty with uploading has to do with blocks that some of the internet service providers throw out there but there are ways around them.
Really try to see Joe live - until you can try to get his new live album - Live From Noplace in Particular - it’s a good substitute for a live show. I actually learned about BDS from people on his forum - they are quite popular with some of the people on there.