Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
Member is Online
|
Post by Brian on Jan 9, 2011 1:48:52 GMT -8
Excuse me for the next few weeks while I gush about Ian Hunter and the Rant Band. They're coming to the El Rey on Jan. 29 -- for his and their first appearance in the L.A. area since June 2007 -- and I'm going.
Last month, Ian played an acoustic show in Fall River, Mass., seated with drummer Steve Holley and guitarist Andy York, that was captured by a guy named propergation and posted on You Tube. I assume he's a guy because Ian's fanbase is comprised almost entirely of men now in their 50's, like me, who fell in love with his songwriting and his voice in the early 1970's and were still being rewarded with superb solo albums and amazing tours with the Rant Band in the past decade. He still sounds great:
Basically, I live to hear a song like "Boy" being performed for the first time in my face with my own ears after 36 years. The tour for his first solo album in 1975 fizzled out back east, and he hasn't played "Boy" in L.A. since. But lately, he's resurrected some of his Mott the Hoople and solo obscurities for his many concerts in the U.K., where it's easy to travel and play multiple markets in a short time.
Clearly, Ian feels and remembers every line from his almost inscrutable, epic masterpiece, changing a few words to chart his growth without messing with Mick Ronson's original arrangement. I've spent decades listening to "Boy" and applying it to my life without fully understanding what Ian was singing about. In the booklet that came with the 30th anniversary edition of his first solo CD, Ian explained that he had been addressing himself, David Bowie and, of all people, Joe Cocker. Shoot a rocket clean out of your mind, indeed. With a few new words at the end, Ian clarifies at least half of our lifetime:
Boy, the energy that we know It never teaches us how to grow It only teaches us how to win
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
Member is Online
|
Post by Brian on Jan 16, 2011 1:43:34 GMT -8
I was looking for a rocker with the Rant Band when I began my weekly wallow into You Tube's Ian Hunter postings. Along the way, I became besotted with this beautifully static video shot at the City Winery in New York last summer. Ian appears for the encore of Alejandro Escovedo's show with guitarist Andy York to play an amazing rendition of "I Wish I Was Your Mother," from Mott the Hoople's greatest album:
Clearly, this wasn't rehearsed or even discussed beforehand. Ian hunts for a guitar and instead winds up directing the band onstage. Alejandro is moved just to be singing Ian's classic with him from his soul, never mind the words. But Andy anchors everyone. The band is inspired -- and Alejandro's audience is ecstatic.
Speaking of classics, some guy bootlegged the 2004 concert DVD of Ian, Andy York and Mott the Hoople cohort Mick Ralphs at the Astoria in London performing Ian's autobiographical "23a Swan Hill." Go, Andy:
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
Member is Online
|
Post by Brian on Jan 23, 2011 1:16:58 GMT -8
Has it really been two decades since my old friend Sam and I saw the Hunter-Ronson Band at the Palace in Hollywood? We all felt so rejuvenated in 1989. You Tube hosts a fan's photo montage with the original recording of "Women's Intuition," a song better than anything the Rolling Stones were doing back then:
Anni will drive Sam and I along with our equally old friend John to the El Rey on Wilshire next Saturday to see Ian Hunter and the Rant Band, playing in L.A. for the first time in three and a half years.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
Member is Online
|
Post by Brian on Jan 27, 2011 0:00:34 GMT -8
I couldn't commit in November when tickets went on sale, but this week I secured a day off next Monday, allowing me to attend Ian's concert at the Galaxy on Sunday without stressing about driving home from Orange County at 11 p.m. and having to work the next morning. Saturday's show at the El Rey on Wilshire seems destined to be standing only, unlike 2008's Tim Finn concert with its rows of folding chairs. Anni got dinner reservations at the Galaxy, so we'll relish being seated -- at a table -- for at least one night.
We had that pleasure in 2007 when Ian and the Rant Band played the Canyon Club in Agoura and the Key Club on Sunset, which was also the last time they released a single and made a video, "When the World Was Round." His best songs grow in meaning and stature every year:
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
Member is Online
|
Post by Brian on Jan 30, 2011 3:20:23 GMT -8
An adoring, enthusiastic and large audience greeted Ian Hunter and the Rant Band on Saturday at El Rey, a restored old movie theater in the Miracle Mile on L.A.'s Wilshire Boulevard. I got there early, so I was able to set my notepad onstage by Boschy's monitor and write down a wonderful and surprising setlist: - Sea Diver
- Life After Death
- Cleveland Rocks
- Dancing on the Moon
- Shallow Crystals
- Irene Wilde
- Arms and Legs
- Flowers
- Soul of America
- Man Overboard
- Girl from the Office
- River of Tears
- Wash Us Away
- Michael Picasso
- 23a Swan Hill
- Sweet Jane
First encore:
- Somewhere (the song from "West Side Story")
- All the Way from Memphis
- Walkin' with a Mountain (with end of Rock n Roll Queen)
- Once Bitten Twice Shy
Second encore:
- Roll Away the Stone
- Saturday Gigs
- All the Young Dudes
Those lucky enough to have seen Ian and the band play the U.K., Europe and the east coast of the U.S. in the 43 months that they've been absent here have enjoyed some amazing selections from Ian's career, songs I've never heard him play live. Still, I never could have imagined a concert that opened with "Sea Diver" and included obscurities like "Dancing on the Moon" and "Shallow Crystals." Or had "Walkin' with a Mountain" fused with "Rock n Roll Queen" as an encore. In between, Ian offered us a choice between "Boy" and "Michael Picasso," declared the vote 50-50 and went with his tribute to Ronson with as much feeling as I've ever witnessed. I'll have to keep watching that You Tube video of "Boy" with Andy York and Steve Holley from Massachusetts last month, because I may never hear him play it in L.A. But at least I finally got to hear five songs from their latest album -- a whole year and a half after the CD was released. Who knows what they might play at the Galaxy in Santa Ana on Sunday evening. I'll be back.
|
|
anni
Administrator
Administrating Designer
Posts: 1,608
|
Post by anni on Jan 30, 2011 13:42:45 GMT -8
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
Member is Online
|
Post by Brian on Jan 31, 2011 2:45:20 GMT -8
Ian Hunter and the Rant Band played 24 songs Sunday at the Galaxy in Santa Ana, Calif. -- one more than they did at El Rey on Saturday -- and one of them was "Boy," right after "Wash Us Away." The setlist: - Sea Diver
- Life After Death
- Cleveland Rocks
- Dancing on the Moon
- Shallow Crystals
- Irene Wilde
- Words (Big Mouth)
- Arms and Legs
- Flowers
- Soul of America
- Man Overboard
- Wash Us Away
- Boy
- 23a Swan Hill
- Sweet Jane
First encore:
- Letter to Britannia from the Union Jack
- Somewhere (Bernstein/Sondheim)
- All the Way from Memphis
- Walkin' with a Mountain (plus Rock n Roll Queen outro)
- Once Bitten Twice Shy
Second encore:
- Girl from the Office
- Roll Away the Stone
- Saturday Gigs
- All the Young Dudes
This might have been the greatest weekend of my life, at least since the last time Ian and those guys performed in Southern California in June 2007. But I'll have to save my ravings for later this week.
|
|
anni
Administrator
Administrating Designer
Posts: 1,608
|
Post by anni on Jan 31, 2011 15:13:28 GMT -8
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
Member is Online
|
Post by Brian on Feb 6, 2011 0:49:01 GMT -8
For a whole week, I've been playing songs from Ian Hunter and the Rant Band's two Southern California concerts in my head, soaking up the posts and links from other fans online and making notes for some kind of review. I realized I could write 3000 words about this latest peak in Ian's mountain range of a career -- or just what he's meant to me for nearly 40 years -- so I'll try this instead.
First, the You Tube roundup. So far I've found only one page of clips listed. I expected more because I counted at least a dozen video cameras pointed at my side of the stage, seated as we were behind the standing crowd at the Galaxy on Sunday. None meet the Montrose Peace Vigil message board's standards for quality. Since my face was the nearest object to M.C. Bosch's monitor at El Rey on Saturday, I couldn't tell how well that show was being captured. But one guy near the back shot three videos of the whole stage with good sound, including "Roll Away the Stone," which has always been Our Song for Anni and me:
When El Rey tickets went on sale in November, I bought four to support Ian -- and to include Sam and Ray, guys I met three months after the release of Mott the Hoople's first album. Ray was with me one of the nights I saw the Hunter-Ronson Band at the Roxy in 1979, which was recorded for their "Welcome to the Club" album, and Sam came to Palace for the Hunter-Ronson Band of 1990. But Ray's a musician who got a gig of his own the night that Ian and the Rant Band were playing El Rey, so we gave his ticket to someone who actually saw Mott the Hoople in London in 1970. He bought another ticket for his wife, one of Anni's oldest friends. And everybody we spoke with thought it was one of the best concerts they'd ever attended.
|
|
Brian
Administrator
Posts: 3,802
Member is Online
|
Post by Brian on Feb 13, 2011 1:29:36 GMT -8
Thursday on You Tube someone posted this excellent video of Ian Hunter and the Rant Band at the Fillmore in San Francisco -- the only show that Anni and I had to miss -- with Scott McCaughey, an unofficial member of R.E.M., living his life long dream onstage by contributing to this bluesy and especially glorious rendition of the show closer, "All the Young Dudes." It captures Ian's clear voice, warmth and presence:
The next night at El Rey in L.A., he shook the hands of front row fans before leaving the stage. Mine last.
|
|