Tipitina's presents the New Orleans Radiators 36th Anniversary Celebration
with opener: the Walrus
2014-01-16
Tipitina's
501 Napoleon Ave, New Orleans, LA
10:00 PM, Thursday, January 16, 2014
[9:35 PM lights down, musicians onstage; Introduction by Darcy Malone]
[10:40 PM Camile, Dave and Frankie onstage getting set up; off after a few, then Reggie up awhile; 11:03 PM Ed onstage; 11:05 PM the full band! 11:08 PM Kenny whips up the audience; Dave spreads a bindle of Marshall's ashes onstage]
[12:44 AM Ed back onstage; 12:48 AM band; Ed noodles a tune while we wait to get going]
I am wiped out after today's hike in Jean Lafitte National Historical Park, so I hit the sack for a deep recharging snooze before the show. Up and about around 7:30 PM, Ting tells me that I look like a mess, and I have to agree – bloodshot eyes, deep bags under my eyes, birds nest hairdo. But I gotta go, it's time to wake up and get ready to RADIATE!
We get out the door around 8 PM and loop clockwise around to Tips; the drive is longer than I anticipated, which feeds my anxiety, but we score a good parking spot near the club, and find that there's only a dozen-odd folks waiting to head in, so all is well in that respect. I head over to wait for our tix in the will call line, while Ting mingles with the ticketed crowd at the door. We can hear the Walrus blasting away at Beatles covers during the soundcheck – oh boy, something else to look forward to! Will call gets set up eventually, and after picking up tonight's tickets, I join Ting in the entry line. It's a little bit chilly out here – high 40's? low 50's? But not too bad, and most everyone is in high spirits, happy to hug and say hello.
After a couple false starts to announce house rules, line rules and generally harass us, the doors open and we are tagged and released to school inside. In less than 10 minutes the crowd is lined up four and five deep front and center, but soon enough folks chill a little and zip off for side trips to the bar, or upstairs or outside to smoke.
The Walrus take the stage a little after 9:30 PM and romp through an energetic, joyful set of Beatles tunes with nary a misstep. And Dave Malone joins his daughter Darcy to share lead singing duties on Come Together, whew! It's heating up inside real well!! By this time an ample crowd has arrived and things get really squishy for awhile during the break between the Walrus and the start of the Radiators first set. Of course it's great to see everyone who's joined us for the show, but with most of the free space long gone, it becomes a more and more difficult task to share greetings, degenerating eventually to fingertip bumps and smiles cast across the intervening fishies. It seems to me that the band takes a longer time than usual to get things set up just right – out of practice, perhaps? – especially Frankie's kit – but eventually the gear is ready and the band retreats for a last few minutes of pre-show break.
A few minutes after 11 PM, Ed tosses his bag up onstage and begins his pre-show routine, followed in a few minutes by the rest of the band. Kenny does his best to get the crowd riled up for the start of the show, but then Dave takes things in a different direction, opening a large bindle and spreading a bit of Marshall's ashes onstage while making a brief homage. And with that, they're off!
This Wheel's on Fire is a glorious opening statement, with a strong message and excellent interplay between the guitarists. Both City of Refuge and Jigsaw may have been preceded by interjections of other tunes by Ed, either vocally or instrumentally. In each case, I distinctly recall being slightly discombobulated between a positive ID on the tune and a sense of “wait, that's not right”, resolved both times before I could catch on words or a melodic riff to write as annotation. Sparkplug ripped, like usual (is it OK to write like usual when the band hasn't played together in a year?), and following it up with Sadie was sheer genius. Just taking us higher, yessiree! Later in the set, the band shifted gears (up key?) in the middle of I Like My Poison, abandoning the conclusion in favor of a torrid romp through Where Was You At?. Red Dress to close began with a long, slow, greasy Hot Lube, punctuated by at least one Edlib (I Don't Need No Doctor) before sliding on to the honking and squonking ride through the fan favorite (evidenced by the many red-clad women in the house). Whew, time for a break!
The band reconvenes after a very short break – less than 30 min? must be some kind of record! – and without any particular folderol, we're off! Hearing them again is so good that the setlist doesn't really matter all that much – I'm happy with just about every choice. Repeating “I've Got a Feeling” (after having the Walrus play it earlier in the night) seems a little odd, but the Rads have always tweaked this one in various special ways, and tonight is no different, with Dave leading the way into a funky spangalang groove segment riffing off of the Isley Brothers classic, It's Your Thing. The set comes to an end just after two AM, and after a brief pause, we get two more for the encore: Dead Flowers and Rosie. Yay! I'm happy even for Rosie. Especially because I'm pretty sure they won't pull it back out during the next few nights!
One down, two to go!
And thanks to Eric Vandercar & Jon Hart, you can buy a fine recording of this show from LiveDownloads.