Mudcrutch at the Troubadour

Last night Jacki and I got to see Tom Petty make a rare club appearance in the standing room only Troubadour in West Hollywood. He was playing a set with his original band from the 70's called Mudcrutch. The band includes a couple of members from the Heartbreakers and a couple of the original guys from the Mudcrutch days before Tom Petty became famous.

They are doing a small run of concerts in California and this was the 2nd night of 6 sold out nights at the Troubadour. Unfortunately they didn't distribute tickets in an effort to prevent scalping, so tickets were sold exclusively through Ticketmaster and could only be picked up by the credit card owner. Supposedly this standing room only I heard the venue only holds 300 people.

The band played a solid 2 hours, and although the audience knew very little of the material, it didn't stop the crowd from having a great time. The band threw in a few covers including a couple of Dylan covers that had the crowd singing along. Security was tight so no good pictures from the show.

Near the end of the set Jacki noticed that what appeared to be Tom's monitors on the floor of the stage were actually teleprompters. I guess after all of these years you can't expect Tom to remember 2 hours of new material. However I doubt anyone noticed the use of them all night.

Tom took an unassuming role settling in on bass for the entire night and even let some of the other guys sing lead vocals on a couple of the songs. Although Tom doesn't look like a bass player he sounded great plucking the country bass lines with his his thumb the entire show.

Highlights of the show for me were Summertime Blues, the bluegrass influenced instrumental June Apple and the Crystal River jam at the end of the song. Tom also turned part storyteller telling a hilarious story about coming to the Troubadour in the 70s and being invited on stage to play with the Knack after getting a bit intoxicated. When it was all said in done he thought he had a memorable appearance but in reality he ended up trashing the tables and ended up owing the club nearly 500 dollars.

A great show in a great venue.

Mudcrutch
April 26, 2008
Troubadour
West Hollywood, CA

Shady Grove
Orphan Of The Storm
Six Days On The Road
Scare Easy
You Go Your Way, I'll Go Mine
This is a Good Street
Love Of The Bayou
(Band Introductions)
Queen Of The Go Go Girls
Rip It Up
Summertime Blues
June Apple
(Tom Petty Troubadour story with the Knack and Bruce Springsteen)
House Of Stone
Love Please Come Home
Crystal River
Topanga Cowgirl
The Wrong Thing To Do
Bootleg Flyer
Encore
Rainy Day Women #12 & #35
High School Confidential

Enuff Z'nuff

On Friday night my good friend Dean invited me out to see Enuff Z'nuff at Troubadour. Dean is friends with original lead singer Donnie Vie although Donnie is currently not part of the touring lineup.

We get to show just as the opening band was wrapping up. The venue was still pretty empty. About half an hour after we arrive the guys from Enuff Z'nuff get on stage and begin their set.

I didn't really know what to expect, I had their first cd back in the day and they just seemed like another glam rock band in the 80s, but through the years I've read many reviews comparing them to Cheap Trick and how Enuff Z'nuff have been creating great power pop for nearly the last 20 years.

The mix of the band was pretty bad, especially where we stood. However you could tell the band sounded pretty tight and the vocals were great. Chip Z'nuff was playing a 12 string bass and at one point played the bass riff of Cheap Trick's Gonna Raise Hell as an intro to one of their songs.

At the end of the set Donnie Vie showed up and jumped on stage for New Thing. Donnie sounded great. They played another couple of songs and these were by far the best sounding songs of the set. The band was relaxed and Donnie's voice was a much better fit on vocals. Donnie worked the crowd and convinced the band to play a couple extra songs. On the last go round it looked like he was over staying his welcome on stage with Chip Z'nuff, but they got through the last song with no problems.

Afterwards the band headed upstairs to the back stage area of club. Dean and I stayed on the floor waiting for the next band Britny Fox. I actually saw Britney Fox open for Poison back in 1988. I don't remember much other than their two hits Long Way To Love and Girlschool. They came out and the first thing I noticed was the band looks too young. All the guys looked to be in their late 20s or early 30s except for the bass player. Turns out the bass player is the only original member of the band. Seems wrong to pass off your band with only the original bass player but then Dean pointed out to me that Enuff Z'nuff's bass player is also the only original member.

About 3 or 4 songs into the set Donnie's wife comes and gets Dean and I and we head up to see the band. The backstage area had a ton of people crammed into this tiny space. The smoke nearly over took me. We were up there about 10-15 minutes and talked to a few people before we headed outside. On the way out I got to hear one of Britny Fox's hits Long Way To Love. Outside we ended up talking to Donnie and Chip and strangely Jerry Cantrell from Alice In Chains was hanging out on the street with his brother. He came by and said hi to Chip.

We heard a some of Chip's and Donnie's stories and had a few good laughs. We ended up talking to them for a few more minutes outside of Dan Tana's. Eric Stacy from Faster Pussycat also came over and ended up going in with the guys and a larger group of people for a late dinner. Dean and I passed on eating with them and ended up wrapping up the night back at the Troubadour.

Jason Falkner Group

Last night we went to see Jason Falkner Group at the world famous Troubadour. It ended a Thanksgiving weekend of activity and was the last night Randal, Darian's boyfriend, was here. It was good to see Dean playing live again and talk a bit to Tara before the show.

Tomorrow is back to work and back to another month of reality before the Christmas break.