Review: Tom Morello @ Wonder Ballroom

The opener tonight was Raymond “Boots” Riley. Riley is an Oakland, Ca. based rapper with the group The Coup. It was The Coup’s 2001 release Party Music that first gained them national notoriety, but for the wrong reason. The cover depicted Boots and DJ Pam the Funkstress pushing the ‘on’ button on a guitar amp while two skyscrapers blew up. As its scheduled release date was only days after the September 11th tragedy, the record company pulled it until new cover art could be designed. The music was worth a listen without the incredibly bad timing.

As a solo performer, Riley laid down funky raps accompanied by an acoustic guitarist. Extra points for originality, but Riley’s lyrics caught me by surprise. Defiant and clever, Riley raps witty rhymes with purpose and humor. The anthem-like Five Million Ways To Kill A CEO got the audience shouting and clapping along while a song he wrote for his daughter called Wear Clean Drawers had everyone smiling ear to ear. If he had a single to release, I would have picked the song he called his purpose in life. He said he was put on this earth for five things: Laugh, Love Fuck and Drink Liquor (and Help the Revolution Come Quicker.) Great song but I doubt it will get any radio air time, especially in the fiftieth largest media market in the United States of America.

The Nightwatchman is the nom de solo act of one Tom Morello, formally of Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave. I had seen his solo act at Bonnaroo a couple of years ago, along with eight to ten thousand like minded fans, in a tent, in the middle of a corn field, in Tennessee in June. Hot, sweaty, dusty and about forty yards away, The Nightwatchman’s acoustic set was hard to follow. He sat in with Saturday night headliner Tool for a few songs when I was one of about sixty five thousand fans craning my neck to get a glimpse. Cool collaboration, but that wasn’t The Nightwatchman. That was Tom Morello, guitar wizard.

In the cozy confines of the Wonder Ballroom, from the front of the stage, about three feet away and sharing the experience with maybe four hundred others, I finally saw The Nightwatchman the way his show should always be seen. Up close and personal.

He opened with the title track from his new release, The Fabled City. Never one to be quiet about his passions, Morello writes about his feelings of outrage and injustice with stories told by characters that seem so familiar they could your neighbor, co-worker or even yourself. The song’s titles get you thinking right off the bat. Try not getting a mental image when you hear the words House Gone Up In Flames or Midnight In the City Of Destruction. During the former, The Nightwatchman suffered some flubbed lyrics, attributed to the aforementioned Jameson’s. Prior to the latter, The Nightwatchman asked the audience to employ the buddy system, by calmly telling noisy neighbors in the crowd to “Shut the fuck up!” And Midnight is a song that drips with the rage felt by those who suffered due to Hurricane Katrina and the government that allowed it to happen. “I pray that God himself will come and drown the president if the levees break again” he sings. Is that angry enough for you? This line is delivered by The Nightwatchman in his deep baritone with authority. (O. K. I’m getting sick of this ‘third person’ crap. From now on, I’ll call him Tom of Morello, I promise.) Accompanied only by himself on an acoustic guitar with Whatever It Takes emblazoned on the front in black sharpie, you can’t help but get caught up in the frenzy. Those fists pumping the air in time are now righteous fists pumped by the outraged. That’s the power of the music tonight. Morello had the crowd in the palm of his hand and he played it for all it was worth. Then he switched gears.

Introducing his band, The Freedom Fighter Orchestra, Morello lit into The Lights Are On In Spidertown also from The Fabled City. The rest of the show highlighted Morello’s electric guitar mastery as well as his knack for the political activist folk song genre. On his guitar he had written in red paint Arm the homeless. Memorable for the lead guitar riff tonight was an absolutely blistering version of Springsteen’s The Ghost Of Tom Joad. Yeah, I know, it’s tough to beat the Youtube versions of Morello’s duet with the E-Street Band, but he owned this song without the Boss’ help. His scratch and distortion heavy solo reeked of his heyday with Rage. He handled the vocal like singing a hymn in church, injecting inflections and bringing it down a tone toward the end to a wonderful effect. Really a stunner.

The set officially ended with the quasi autobiographical The Road I Must Travel. Rather than leave the stage for the ritual of being called back for an encore, the band stayed on and played a couple of cover tunes. Surprisingly, they are the first band other than Grand Funk Railroad or Mark Farner who played We’re An American Band and they pulled it off. Another killer solo by Morello ended this tune. Second cover song, Woody Guthrie’s This Land Is Your Land became a sing along, with the house lights up and the band providing an uplifting, powerful ending that would have been the perfect ending for the show.

The band left the stage, but Morello hung back and grabbed the acoustic for one more song. Again, holding the audience rapt, silent (the buddy system at work) Morello started Rise To Power in an almost whisper and slowly built to another anthemic, albeit acoustic, crescendo. Again, the power of the music felt once again. And as I walked out of the Wonder, I wondered how this would all go over later on in the week. On Tuesday, Election Day. And I also wondered how good a transformation Morello made, from damn good guitar player in a damn good, politically active bad, to politically active, folk song writing awesome performer. I also wondered why he didn’t play Shake My Shit but some mysteries are better left unsolved.

Rock On Through The Fog

A.J. Crandall