Bentley's Bandstand
There are moments when only a ripping and roaring live album with a
guitar cranked up to twelve, barreling piano tearing through songs like
a hyena on speed and a revved-up rhythm section rocking until dawn will
get the job done right. There can be no substitutes, and at this late
date in 2009--some sixty years since rock & roll's birth is rightly
traceable--an album like this is worth it's weight in grease and gold.
Gene Taylor is someone who, for lack of a more descriptive phrase,
plays the piss out of a piano, and has for a very long time. He might
have made his name in the Blasters, but there have been a fistful of
bands including Canned Heat, James Harman, Charlie Musselwhite, Top
Jimmy & the Rhythm Pigs and others, that benefited mightily from
Taylor's relentlessly talented hands. On Live!!! 605 Boogie!!!,
he tears out of the starting gate with a barrelhouse boogie blazing,
pounding his way to heaven as the band, which is the Blasters minus
singer Phil Alvin, push him to even greater heights. It is abundantly
clear the night is going to be all right because Gene Taylor's piano is
on fire, and he is also singing up a storm. On the first few songs,
"Sugarbee," "Don't You Lie to Me" and "Looped," we have traveled to the
deepest darkest corners of California--Santa Monica and Hermosa Beach
to be exact--to prove it ain't where you're playing but what you're
playing that really matters. These four men are out for blood, and
guitarist Dave Alvin quickly conjures up the ghost of Johnny "Guitar"
Watson and shows once and for all that he is an axe-man of true
awesomeness. Alvin's songwriting may have earned him the accolades of
the world, but the way he whips those six strings into contorted runs
of tortured inspiration should never be forgotten. He's got the gift of
greatness in his hands, and has never sounded more dangerous than on
this album. He's a mind-blower is the only way to put it. Drummer Bill
Bateman and bassist John Bazz play these songs like it's the blood in
their veins, and at this point have become one. The next time the news
has got you down and nothing seems to bring you up, reach right here.
Gene Taylor has some secrets to share, and with a band of brothers
whose likes we won't see again, is ready to set your soul free.
Guaranteed.
Available for purchase here.
