overlap

Nearly missed this one, but a chance check on the website meant I only knew this gig was on just over a week before it happened. New venue to me, apparently been running since around the turn of the year, but I've had no reason to pay attention to it before. So there's a small concern when the venue website specifies that parking is limited, and local knowledge suggests that getting to the recommended road for parking will take some doing, so I allowed plenty of time, and ended up about the seventh person through the door. Eventually Jason turned up, the room got a bit fuller and by the end a good thirty or maybe even forty people were watching. I mentioned seeing Jason and the Scorchers earlier this year, but the intimacy of Jason's solo shows is a level above that. What we got was two hours split by a brief interval for Jason to sell and sign CDs and t-shirts, and take requests for songs to do in the second half of the show. He signed the CD I bought and the sleeve for another that I'd brought with me, and said he thought that particular Scorchers show was as good a show as the Scorchers have ever played. I'm reminded of a conversation I had recently about someone meeting a musician whose work he admired, and finding his liking being somewhat tarnished by the guy in question being at best disinterested. Some people can turn it on because being vaguely friendly is a part of the job, but Jason is not just a true pro, he's also a thoroughly decent, friendly chap who'll chat as long as you want because he likes that rather than because it's part of the job. Jason's diversion into music for children is heavily hinted at by this, his cover of Roger Miller's England Swings, so it's a good guide to what you'll get if you go and see him. Nothing staggeringly new, except this time I got some decent video and will put a couple more tracks on youtube when I get a chance, but full value for money and some good honest Tennessee humour and warmth. And you really can't ask for much more than that. * "Running down the highway, running down the line" is from Farmer Jason's 'Punk Rock Skunk', from his second album for children of all ages!

Labels: gigs, Jason and the Scorchers, Jason Ringenberg

Six days later, I'm parked up again in London. To be honest I probably would have left one of them alone if I'd had to buy both tickets at once, but once again I'm watching something I never thought I'd see. This time my wandering includes the proper tourist detour to Harrods to have a general look around, including that memorial and a good look at some staggeringly expensive and staggeringly impractical shoes. My credit card winced just to be in the same room, and I left before my eyes started to bleed at the prices. With time on my side, I proved I can link up quite a bit of London on foot now, starting via Hyde Park Corner, which looked a bit different to when I was there last watching the Tour de France Prologue. My celeb spotting radar went off as I correctly identified David Gest from behind (should I be worried about my reality TV habit yet?), then I got caught in a fantastic but brief storm around Tottenham Court Road but I got some great pictures in the fantastic light against the wet ground, and some rainbow pictures from the middle of Camden, arriving at the venue in good time after just the one slight route finding error, which was easy enough to correct. When a support band comes on with four out of the five of them wearing hats, you're either watching The Scorpions, or at risk of a duff half hour. In this case it was neither, and it turned out to be a scratch last minute replacement for the real support band; with a blues rock sound reminiscent of the Faces or the Quireboys, it was not that big a surprise to get the Quireboys' Misled, the Jagger/Richards penned Live With Me made famous by Girlschool and a few more in that vein, and in the circumstances they did pretty well - half an hour was short and sufficiently sweet. I first encountered Jason and the Scorchers by name when they supported at the last ever* Status Quo show in 1984. I bought the number 38 UK charting single Shop It Around in 1985, and for one reason and another not a lot else happened. I've got a few albums, I've seen Jason on his own a couple of times, and he's another stunningly friendly, approachable chap but I think this is the first time I've ever had a chance of making it to a full Scorchers band show. * actually not very last ever, as it turned out Warner had already been out during the support slot, generally messing about, but with a new rythm section in place, it's immediately easy to see what Warner's energy adds to Jason's onstage hyperactivity - you could be forgiven for thinking Jason is part Tigger, but in that case Warner is part whirlwind. In a venue that size they were never going to eclipse the WPA show, but they gave it a damn good go. Two hours of full-on country-punk-folk'n'roll must have cost both Warner and Jason a few pounds in sweat, and finally hearing the full rocked up versions of some songs I've lived with for over twenty years is excellent - good things do come to those who wait. Warner (left) and Jason With a curfew-busting finish just after 10.30, I got back to the car in good time to make an earlier than normal start on the road home, and by taking the more expensive route home got in just after 2.15 which is atypically early. There are pictures to follow in a couple of days, and there's a reason why this gig doesn't get a more detailed write-up, in that tomorrow I'm driving twice as far. It's going to be a long day, and it's already past my bedtime now. Wish us luck! Setlist: Absolutely Sweet Marie Cappuccino Rosie Victory Road My Heart Still Stands With You Shotgun Blues Harvest Moon Last Time Around Close Up The Road When The Angels Cry Help, There's A Fire! Ooh Las vegas Shop It Around Hot Nights In Georgia Somewhere Within Pray For Me Mama, I'm A Gypsy Now Drugstore Truck Drivin' Man Bible And A Gun Broken Whiskey Glass If the Money Talks ------- Both Sides Of The Line Great Balls Of Fire ------- White Lies (*from which the post title comes) Lost Highway Honky Tonk Blues

Labels: gigs, Jason and the Scorchers, Jason Ringenberg, Warner E Hodges

Oh my word - I've just seen something that's made my day. I've droned on at length before about having had the good fortune to see virtually every band I've ever wanted to see by now, but every now and then something pops up that I always considered unlikely bordering on impossible. But I'm extremely excited to find that to coincide with the UK release of a best of album, I'm going to get to see the truly fabulous Jason And The Scorchers. They split up first time around the start of the 1990s, and though I've seen Jason on his own two or three times, and indeed had a couple of chats with him as he is a lovely friendly approachable chap, the idea of getting to see the full live band is something else. I just hope Perry, who has been several grades of seriously ill for quite some time, remains in good enough health that it doesn't turn into a memorial tour. See for yourself the young Scorchers in all their early 80s fashion crime glory, with their treatment of Dylan's Absolutely Sweet Marie, squealing guitars and all. * Last Time Around, opening track of the 1984 Jason And the Scorchers debut album, Lost And Found

Labels: Jason and the Scorchers, Jason Ringenberg