Later
Last saturday on BBC2, Jools Holland kicked off a new season of Later with... with yet another great show. I especially liked Corinne Baily Rae, a really soulful and mellow soulstress.
But the real kicker was seeing Pearl Jam tearing up the studio with a scorching version of Alive. Jools showed Eddie and Mike a video of the last time they were on the show, which was somewhere in the early nineties. Actually, I still have that show on a VHS tape (remember those?) somewhere; I still played in a band those days and watching performances on video was a great way to steal the occasional lick from another guitar player.
I can remember similar VHS tapes with performances by Screaming Trees or Rage against the Machine. Aaahh, the nineties...
Anyway, there is something really comforting about seeing guys who are pushing 40 looking lean and still hungry to play their music. Since I’ll be 38 this week thoughts like this tend to cross your mind every now and then. After Later..., as an encore, the BBC gave us an exclusive Red Hot Chili Peppers concert. Yet another band of fortysomethings that are still rocking very, very hard. Frusciante may look like a Jesus who has just fallen off the cross these days, but seeing where the man is coming from it’s inspiring to see him wail on his Strat in front of several Marshall stacks. The sweet sound of survival and rock’n roll...
