Dave's Smithereens Page
Dave's Smithereens Page
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The Smithereens – The Rock Club – Morristown, NJ (1/30/04) by DSP Staff Editor Todd Sinclair
The Smithereens strode onstage at The Rock Club somewhere around midnight but they were far from being “Alone At Midnight”, as it were, seeing as how the venue was overflowing with people crammed into nearly every available crevice. The huddled masses filled the main floor and spilled out onto the stairs closest to the stage as well as packing the two balconies that loomed overhead. One of the balconies had a special corner setup where a local DJ was broadcasting live segments for WDHA-FM. Portions of the Smithereens’ soundcheck could be heard rumbling in the background during the DJ’s radio program earlier in the evening. Only “New Jersey’s fabulous Smithereens band” (as Pat DiNizio sometimes introduced his group in days of yore) could lure this crowd out on such a painfully cold winter’s evening.
With all of the original bandmembers still present and accounted for onstage, there wouldn’t be any need for a VH-1 “Bands Reunited” program on their behalf anytime soon – especially since the Smithereens have thankfully never broken up as they rapidly approach their 25th (!) anniversary together. While other bands that started out performing during that same era have since fallen by the wayside, the Smithereens have remained honorable survivalists rather than revivalists. They’ve never ceased to “rock steady” in recordings and in concert throughout all of these years. And their tried-and-true performances are none the worse for wear either as practice continues to “make perfect”. That was made abundantly clear this evening with another great performance from the band. Those other “reunited” bands have had to revisit dated material containing then trendy synthesizer and drum machine instrumentations while the Smithereens’ wholly organic music continues to remain fresh even to this day. It’s almost as if their songs have been “frozen in time” in order to prevent spoilage or perhaps their songs have merely been put on “hold warm” before being turned up to full cooking temperature when performed live in concert. So, instead of having to savor a “one-off” reunion show courtesy of VH-1, we’ve been definitely spoiled by our ability to catch the Smithereens on a much more frequent basis in concert. This just goes to prove that exemplary rock and roll that’s done well never goes out of style. So that’s too bad for VH-1’s “Bands Reunited” program, but lucky for us. To paraphrase an old saying: What the fickle music industry doesn’t kill, only seems to make the Smithereens stronger.
The Smithereens were each decked out for the show in black (almost as if they had just returned from the “A Date with the Smithereens” photo shoot). From the moment that Mike inevitably motioned for the volume level on his bass to be cranked up to “11”, it became quite obvious that these four “Men In Black” were not dressed that way in order to attend a wake. On the contrary, judging from the furtive yet telltale looks of fierce determination on their faces and their coiled combat stance, this evening would probably prove to be much more like a wakeup call instead.
A short instrumental prelude set the bandwagon in motion even though the first number seemed indiscernible at first. However, it didn’t take very long to win this home game version of “Name That Tune” when the familiar riff of “A Girl Like You” soon sliced through the air like a revved-up chainsaw cutting its teeth on a piece of hard rock. The band tore into the song as if their championship title depended on it and they kept punching away until they had achieved their desired knockout after only about five minutes into the opening round.
“A Girl Like You” seemed like a very apt opening number for a “Men’s Entertainment Complex” such as this one with a go-go bar next door to the main concert area. The original “banned by MTV” music video version of “A Girl Like You” was set in a strip club and was meant to be a parody of those typically banal 80’s “hair band” music videos of the day. If only Leon (“Hogan’s Heroes”) Askin a.k.a. TV’s General Burkhalter who portrayed the band’s manager in the music video could somehow mysteriously appear this evening while indignantly scolding: “You almost missed the gig!” then it would have seemed like a perfectly appropriate dramatic reenactment under the circumstances.
In a bold move designed to raise the bar in concert, the band had rejiggered their set this evening and began with “A Girl Like You” as its opener. This is a number that they would normally roll out with a roaring crescendo as a climax to their set. The song has no doubt kept its place securely at the end of their setlist after all of these years simply by virtue of being such a hard number to top. So where do you go after that when you’ve already achieved “maximum rock and roll” jam mode with such a powerhouse rocker as that one? As if in answer, the band continued raising the energy level into the red zone by following that one up with the perennial live dynamo “Time And Time Again” and then they delivered a swift uppercut punch to the gut with a rib-rattling version of “House We Used To Live In”. Not content to merely rest on their laurels, the Smithereens rearranged the latter tune by having Pat play a full-throttle harmonica solo midway through the song. Then Jim, Mike and Pat gathered around the center stage microphone as the not quite “three tenors” gave their best “vocal cord shredding” rendition of the song’s catchy chorus hook. Meanwhile, Dennis wailed and flailed away on the drums in the background until it seemed like this “House” had not only been “lived in” but also been “partied heartily in” and then appropriately blown to Smithereens by hurricane Dennis. Showing no signs of being otherwise “winded”, this Fantastic Four further refused to settle in with an easy setlist as they pounded out yet another big hit with “Drown In My Own Tears”.
So here were four extremely powerful songs in a row “power popped” off in rapid succession like propulsive machine gun fire. One might reasonably expect to catch this many hits only at the end of a typical Smithereens show in the past. But not this time around. It was almost like watching some sort of Bizarro version of that independent movie “Memento” where all of its film scenes transpired in backwards running order with the end scene coming first. It was a very impressive spectacle to behold - to say the least.
If the band’s mission statement had been to shake up audience expectations by being overachievers from the onset then they were certainly living up to the task this evening. Jim Babjak seemed to have retrieved his black Rickenbacker guitar from storage or mothballs as the case may be and gave us a refresher course in the kind of chiming guitar solos that he appears to deliver so effortlessly and yet so masterfully. Later on in the show, I thought that his solo during “Maria Elena” was especially superb although I can honestly say that his guitar playing was pretty much “spot on” throughout the entire evening.
Mike Mesaros’ formidable musical talents continually seemed to pass directly through his fingers into his bass guitar and then pumped their electrical energy on out through his legs causing them to twitch and kick like a wired-up science experiment. Jim and Pat pointed with admiration in the direction of Mike’s thundering bass as his signature basslines commandeered “Blood And Roses” and drove it around the block a few times. They then assumed a mock prayer position as if bowing down to their rock god bass idol. Similarly, Mike, Jim and Pat turned in awe to marvel at the blur that was Dennis working overtime behind the drums during a particularly frenetic drumming display of force in the middle of the band’s rendition of “Room Without A View”.
The Smithereens wasted little precious time joking around, though. Other than the time that Pat pretended to spear Mike from behind with his guitar in jest, the music was treated as serious business throughout the night. The syncopated three-way guitar swinging, occasional guitar windmills and synchronized jumps in time to the drum downbeat were still in evidence but the music was the driving element that fueled the team. One song seemed to feed off of another like a snowball rolling down a hill while it keeps on attaining mass and eventually turns into a powerful boulder that knocks you right off your feet. (In the case of tonight’s show, however, I think it might be safe to assume that the snowball had already begun its journey as a boulder.)
Pat chose to play no guitar at all at various times depending on the requirements of a particular song. For instance, he chose to concentrate solely on his crooning abilities during his stirring vocal performance of “Especially For You” as well as his equally moving rendition of “In A Lonely Place”. “In A Lonely Place” spontaneously combusted into what Pat used to call an S.S.A. – Smithereens Sing Along. Only this time Pat didn’t have to prod the crowd to sing along. The crowd could be heard singing the lyrics without any prompting until Pat just went along with the moment and pointed his microphone out into the audience to let them take over temporary ownership of it for the evening.
Pat appeared to be visibly moved by the audience participation and enthusiasm throughout the night. Many people in the audience sang along to songs that they obviously knew by heart. Some couples could be seen dancing with one another while many bobble-headed concertgoers bopped their craniums in time to the music or jabbed their arms into the air at precipitous moments while still others vigorously pogo-ed up and down in response to the more rocking songs. For them, the music seemed to be not only nostalgic but cathartic as well.
The staggering momentum of the evening’s musical numbers continued unabated as the band continued to roll out the hits as well as those songs that had slipped through the cracks initially but have since been rediscovered as live performance gems. Songs like “Room Without A View” take on a new life of their own when jammed out live and tonight the band added some other worthy tunes to the setlist that they don’t often perform but you have to wonder why now in retrospect. “If The Sun Doesn’t Shine” from “Green Thoughts” shook and shimmered in all of the right places. When they trotted out songs like “William Wilson” and “Blues Before And After”, Pat introduced them by saying that they hadn’t been played live in quite a long time. Afterwards, it seemed like they had finally attained their rightful place of honor back into the setlist where they had always belonged.
This was the kind of show where you hoped it wouldn’t end and it almost seemed like it might not have if the Smithereens had their way and had the venue not turned the lights on midway through the band’s fifth and final encore as a not so subtle hint that they had to close up for the night. Personally, I don’t think it gets much better than hearing the Smithereens perform a nearly pulverizing version of “The World We Know” like they did this evening as one of their encores or having them play two fab Beatles tunes like the soaring “Rain” or the more obscure “I Don’t Want To Spoil The Party” from “The Beatles For Sale” (or from “the Beatles VI” for those of you still hopelessly attached to your U.S. vinyl versions.) They even continued their cover version “rain” pseudo-medley with Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Who’ll Stop The Rain”. It all came to a grand crunching halt as the final power chord of “Top of the Pops” still seemed to linger in the air as the audience was herded out of the concert hall and back out into the brutally cold reality of winter again.
Overall, the band generously presented a bountiful selection of songs this evening (so many tunes in fact that I nearly ran out of room on my sheet of paper while trying to write down the entire setlist.) This is clearly a band still playing at their peak even after all of these years with a setlist malleable enough to satisfy those concertgoers looking for the more familiar hits as well as those hardcore fans looking for buried jewels waiting to be unearthed from within the band’s song catalog treasure trove.
VH-1 “Bands Reunited”? Bah, humbug. I prefer my bands alive and kicking. And few bands are quite as alive and kicking as “New Jersey’s fabulous Smithereens band.”
Setlist:
Encores:
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