All the Concerts Fit to Print

It seems Jethro Tull is no more. I would think Barre would still be up for it, but the rest of the last band resigned, so I guess Anderson's just doing the solo thing now, whether he's playing Tull or not.

Since this tour was entitled The Best of Jethro Tull (or so my ticket says), I was expecting nothing but Tull. The fact that the first six or more songs were not Tull was a little disappointing. Not that it was bad music, it just didn't meet expectations. Expectations that were based on an explicit message. Though I now see some advertising that reads "Homo Erraticus & The Best of Jethro Tull."

The band opened with seven songs from Anderson's latest album, Homo Erraticus. They were pretty good, in my opinion, and got a positive reception from the audients. Nothing too exciting, but solid. They then went into "Bourée," and ended the first half with "Thick As a Brick." "Bourée" was great, but I was disappointed at the inclusion of Brick, since the last time we saw them, two years ago, was the Thick As A Brick tour.

The second half saw a more interesting selection of songs. As it was billed as a "Best Of" show, they concentrated on singles. Six of the nine songs of the second half had been singles, and the other three were all popular tunes, with the exception of an excerpt from A Passion Play, apparently entitled "Critique Oblique." And of course they closed with "Locomotive Breath." Again. I enjoyed it much more the last time.

Most of these tunes are not among my favorites. "Living in the Past," "Teacher," "Critique Oblique," "Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll," "Farm on the Freeway" - not thrilling. I did quite enjoy "With You There to Help Me," "Sweet Dream" and "Aqualung." Oh well. Can't win 'em all.

Ian's voice is pretty well shot. It seems to have gone downhill even in the last two years. It's odd because his speaking voice is still deep, but it's an obvious strain for him to sing. So he's got a vocalist along on the tour. Ryan O'Donnell traded lyrics with Anderson on many songs. He does a decent job at it. I wish he'd sing more. Any song where Ian plays flute or guitar should be fine to hand over the vocal reins. The whole band was the same as the last tour. John O'Hara on keyboards, Florian Opahle on electric guitar, David Goodier on bass and Scott Hammond on drums.

There was no opening act, but before the show started they played videos from friends on the big screen on the stage. That was nice background music.

Setlist:
Doggerland
Enter the Uninvited
Puer Ferox Adventus
The Engineer
Tripudium Ad Bellum
The Browning of the Green
Cold Dead Reckoning
Bourée
Thick as a Brick

Living in the Past
With You There to Help Me
Sweet Dream
Teacher
Critique Oblique
Too Old to Rock 'n' Roll: Too Young to Die
Songs from the Wood
Farm on the Freeway
Aqualung

Locomotive Breath

Ian Anderson, leader, flautist and multi-instrumentalist of Jethro Tull, just embarked on a solo tour. He set it up as an intimate affair, with some audience participation. He had a local radio announcer onstage with him to do some interviewing, and bring some people up onstage to ask some questions.

I enjoyed the format, since Ian is a funny guy, and I like to hear stories and learn about artists and their craft. Much of the audience (or maybe it was a vocal minority) didn't care for the talking and wanted to hear more music. The music was a bit loose. The musicians seemed somewhat amateur, they were jetlagged, it was the opening night of the tour, it was quiet and acoustic, etc. The musicians were a keyboard/accordion player, a drummer, an acoustic guitarist (who had obviously studied and played classical guitar), and a bassist who is a respected proctologist (there's a joke about bassist and their strong fingers, someplace in there).

The selection of songs was great. Ian played many songs that he seldom or maybe had never played. He opened with his flute, playing to a backing track. It was representative of all things Tull and Anderson (at least in latter years), sort of an "Ian Tull Overture". After that, the first song he played was "Life's A Long Song". I was blown away, since that is not a well-known song, and is one of my most favorites. The next song was "Skating Away" - another one of my favorites. If I had to narrow it down to two songs that I'd want to hear, those would be them. He also played, "Fat Man," "Christmas Song," "Cheap Day Return," "Mother Goose," an excerpt from "Thick as a Brick," and several of his own songs. And a jazzy version of "Locomotive Breath."

One audience member asked Ian about his voice. He had surgery for polyps, back in the mid-eighties, and his voice hasn't been the same since. I've thought it's been improving, slightly, and Ian confirmed that. He explained that the throat muscles are used quite differently for singing than they are for playing the flute, and that is quite hard on his voice. When he is recording, he won't even sing and play the flute on the same days. He has no such luxury when he is touring, though.

An answer to another question dealt with his desire to be a policeman, which was sidetracked by his budding musical career.

Ian once injured his wrist, and it still bothers him sometimes. Because of this old injury, handshakes can cause him pain that can linger for a while, so he has taken up the elbow rub as his form of greeting - hence the name of the tour. It did sometimes look like a square dance step, though.

Another thing Ian is doing on this tour, is inviting local musicians to play. Daryl Stuermer and Willy Porter played songs. Steurmer plays with Genesis on tour, and with Phil Collins both on tour and in the studio. He is good. Just a little dull (like he's learned too much from Phil Collins) but very good nonetheless. His song featured the lone electric guitar for the evening. Willy Porter has toured with Tull (and has played with Tori Amos), and Ian plays on a song on his latest record. They played that one. It was just Willy and Ian. Willy is an amazing acoustic guitarist, but he also has an awesome voice, and is a great songwriter.

The intimate setting seemed to give certain loud people the idea that they could shout anything they wanted and Ian and the whole audience would hear, and enjoy their humor. If it were a loud rock concert, they would hardly be heard, and I could have ignored them easily, but it wasn't and I couldn't. And there was an embarrassing episode near the end of the first half, that involved a pushy local "celebrity" who changed the focus of the show from Ian to himself for about ten minutes. And through the whole second half, someone was breathing on me. It was not pleasant. All of that almost ruined the show for me.

The show got a bit rushed at he end, as they ran out of time. The conversation ended up taking more time than they expected, I'd guess, and it was the first show of the tour, and they had a lot of bugs to work out, and things to refine. I would recommend the show, highly, to any hardcore Tull fan.

"After 35 years of being THE flute player in rock music to a lot of people," Anderson said, "I have to regard it as personal failure that it has not inspired hundreds of others."

Setlist: Largely conversation, but the musical component was:
In The Grip Of Stronger Stuff (live flute over pre-recorded backing), Life Is A Long Song, Skating Away..., Thick As A Brick (~3 mins), Up The 'Pool, Cheap Day Return, Mother Goose, Fat Man, Griminelli's Lament, Montserrat, Bourée - [Interval] - A Christmas Song, Boris Dancing, Daryl Steurmer song (w. Ian), Circular Breathing, Big Yellow Pine (Willy Porter w. Ian), Dot Com, Living In The Past, Locomotive Breath