When addressing the musical heritage of New Orleans, one cannot go without mentioning “Mac” Rebennack, famously known as Dr. John. Since hitting it big in the late 60’s and 70’s with his combination of traditional blues, jazz, zydeco, psychedelia, funk, and rock and roll, the legendary performer has remained an integral figure in the New Orleans music scene. While he has already made an enormous contribution to music in general, he is still out there on the road, laying down some of the nastiest piano work and making new fans along the way. On September 2nd, he played a free concert on the renowned Santa Monica Pier, which just celebrated its 100th year in 2009. It was the final show of the pier’s weekly summer concerts, known as “The Twilight Dance Series,” and proved to be a beautiful way to wrap their 26th season.
As the Pacific coast’s early evening winds kicked in, Dr. John and his current band, the Lower 911, took to the stage to deliver a killer set heavy on gorgeous piano playing and cool, laid-back grooves. The mellow splendor of ballads like “Makin’ Whoopee” and “My Buddy” had Dr. John’s vocals smoothly sailing over the music like Frank Sinatra did in his early years. His accompanying ivory tickling on these songs really seemed to pull you back into another time and place in America, as if you were hanging out with Jack Kerouac in a smoky jazz club in the late 1940’s.
The Lower 911, made up of bassist David Barrard, drummer Shannon Powell, and guitarist John Fohl, laid down tasteful foundations on songs like “Wild Honey,” that seemed to be heavily inspired by the Meters’ loose and funky rhythms. The amalgamation of this sound with Dr. John’s salsa flavored piano playing spiced up a song like “St. James Infirmary.” The funk was thickest on “I’ve Been Hoodooed” and “Right Place, Wrong Time.” The former came off extra mysterious with the oncoming fog rolling across the deck boards of the pier, as if there was real voodoo magic in the air. The latter, as always, started an instant dance party, with the audience enthusiastically shouting the “hoooooooo!!!” parts. Naturally, he followed up this fun with “Let the Good Times Roll,” which featured the good Dr. playing some bad-ass blues guitar that was almost as wild as his trademark get-up of flashy colored clothes and jangly earrings (which of course, would be very hard to beat).
Considering Dr. John calls the Gulf coast his home, you had to expect that he was pissed off this evening. Earlier in the day, news broke that another oil rig had exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, just a couple of months after the BP oil spill. A week earlier marked the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, which claimed the lives of over 1,800 people and caused tens of billions of dollars in damages to property along the same shores. He may have been frustrated, but through the words he spoke and songs he sung, he just told it like it is and then moved on to provide solution, comfort, and with the music, at least a little bit of salvation.
When the band tackled the ecological preservation prayer, “Save Our Wetlands,” he spoke a few words mid-song, addressing the corporate oil giants as “lowdown suckas who are killing an entire culture in the name of greed,” with that lazy N’awlinz drawl of his. It was the slick Dr. laying out the diagnosis, who then prescribed some medicine, encouraging the crowd to call their congressman about their concern for the Gulf’s fragile ecosystem. The band extended their sympathy to those struggling in these areas and beyond with a gospel of truth-ism, “Big Gap,” a powerful song from their just-released album “Tribal,” about that monster division between the haves and the have-nots.Closing the show with “Goin’ back to New Orleans,” the band brought the spirit of Mardi Gras from the shores of Louisiana to the shores of California. Singing of the glories of the fabled city with such passion and pride, the Dr. conveyed the feeling that redemption could at least be found in the music.
Returning for an encore, the band wrapped things up with an exceptional version of “Such a Night,” and such a night it was. Judging by this solid show and his fantastic new album that easily holds up with his classic sixties and seventies music, Dr. John has found a great match in the Lower 911.
