All the Concerts Fit to Print

Willy Porter at Summerfest. I believe it was his usual band of the time - Dave Adler, Dave Schoepke, and ... still can't remember the bassist's name. Steve Kleiber, right? The be-fezed Biff Blumfumgagnge joined the band for some of the show. Seems like he played a small guitar and a violin.

Also caught some of BB King's show, down at the south end of the grounds.

Solo show, I think.

I'd been a fan of Willy for a while, and Martin is the guitarist for Jethro Tull, one of my favorites, so for the local favorite to do a combined show with the bigtime favorite was very cool. Willy had toured with Tull at some point, and become friends with the band. Ian Anderson played on Willy's album from two years prior, and now Willy and Martin were doing a min-tour in the upper midwest.

It was at the Northern Lights Theater, which is mostly or all tables. We got our tickets kinda late, and ended up sitting way down front. Someone must have released the tickets. We were at a table of six that was up against the stage, and sitting with someone that had some connection to Willy.

In addition to Willy and Martin, the band was the rest of Tull, minus Anderson - Andy Gidding, Jonathan Noyce and Doane Perry. Before the show, I needed to use the restroom, and got directions from someone at the door. I went through the wrong door, and ended up backstage and nodding "hi" to Gidding.

The first part of the show was Willy's. He did his songs with the band backing him up. I forget if Martin was onstage the whole time, or just near the end. He did a tune making heavy use of the echoplex. I think that was the one listing all the deities, Buddha, Shiva, etc. He's a fantastic guitarist, always pushing his limits. There was a woman in the audience who kept yelling for "Paper Airplane". Willy started out ignoring her, then heckling her back ("Shut up, ma, you're drunk."), and finally security had to talk to her. Someone asked him how his kids were. Martin laughed about the hometown crowd. Willy answered, and then asked the guy why he asked. The guy replied that he had seen him at Summerfest, the day his wife was to give birth.

I also don't remember how much Willy was a part of Martin's show. I enjoyed Martin's music at least as much as Willy's. He was touring in support of Stage Left, which I like a lot. This was the opening night of the tour. Eleven dates - WI, MN, OH, PA, MD, VA, NJ, NY.

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