[rating=8.00]
There’s probably not a music lover alive, no matter the genre object of their passion, that hasn’t fantasized about performing the music that inspires them. And there’s probably no album in the contemporary pop/rock category—or artist for that matter– that’s produced such obsessive attention as Big Star’s Third.
Thank You, Friends: Big Star’s Third Live…and More combines those two dynamics in a live performance of the vaunted cult band’s album by friends and admirers of the musicians and the music. Recorded appropriately enough at the Alex Theatre (homage in itself to the late band linchpin Chilton), a rotating cast of more than twenty musicians reanimate a work that has moved them over the years, a process accurately elucidated by essayist Anthony DeCurtis in the accompanying twenty-page booklet overflowing with facts and photos.
The higher profile names involved in this project, including respectively Mike Mills of R.E.M. and Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, are no more or less prominent in this presentation than, for instance, Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow of the Posies, who’ve regularly participated in Big Star ‘reunions’ over the years. The robust horns on “Jesus Christ,” for instance, demonstrate the attention to detail pervading this project (even more delicately rendered on “Big Black Car”), while the former member of Uncle Tupelo sounds wholly haunting with the vulnerability he displays on “Nighttime.“
But in keeping with the under-the-radar aspect of the Big Star’s appeal, the less recognizable names here, besides providing stalwart support alongside the source band’s drummer Jody Stephens, contribute the most memorable moments. For instance, the glowing, harmony-laden rendition of “I Am the Cosmos,” fronted by Chris Stamey, confirms the timeless quality of the style he perpetuated with his own band the db’s ( relatively unsung in their own time, like the subject of this tribute).
Within a quiet acoustic arrangement, its purity almost the antithesis of that rock and roll cum pop style, Skylar Gudasz’ understated vocal performance of “Thirteen” is exquisite and worth repeat on the either the CD (of two) or DVD. The latter medium includes an extra track, “You and Your Sister,” featuring the unsung hero of Thank You, Friends, Pat Sansone; as much as anything here, the singing and guitar playing of this bandmate of Tweedy’s represents the honest dedication to this music that pervades the conception and execution of the project, so he deserves the extra spotlight in the sole bonus feature,
The inclusive nature of exhibit during Kronos Quartet’s appearance on “Dream Lover,” captures the charm as well as the invention on the mythic album at the core of this concert. The truncated commentary from selected participants is as earnest as the show footage into which director Benno Nelson interweaves it, the effect of which insertions compels the thought that, had Big Star been as successful as it deserved to be, the band itself might’ve mounted an offering much like Thank You, Friends.
Based on the string of reissues and regular reunions of surviving personnel combined with like-minded devotees which resemble Thank You Friends: Big Star’s Third Live…and More, the loyalty attributed to this Memphis-based quartet has redefined the definition of cult following simply because those aforementioned actions take the form of practical work involving the group’s recordings and performances thereof.
