November 23, 2010

Another One For Woody @ Roseland Ballroom, November 22

By now, if you have even passing interest in what went down at Roseland last night, you’ve seen the setlists, soaked up the cool sit-ins, watched some video and admired, from afar, that when Warren Haynes puts together a guest-laden benefit event, he means Event. Having spent the near six hours it took to get to the finish line, your humble correspondent can say without hesitation that it measured up to the hype – and the ticket price – and then some. Show of the year, in many respects: not only did the Allmans, especially, clear the high bar of expectations, but most importantly, it’s also something that, yep, ol’ Woody would have loved.

Reviewing shows like Another One for Woody is a tricky business, as there’s not much in the way of continuity or the flow like you’d find at a “normal” show. In other words, you expect anchoring acts, filled with guests and setlists cleverly designed to push emotional buttons, and you’re aware of those constructions going in, during the show, and after. And yet, you find the rare, Last Waltzian blowout that does all those things — then transcends them — on the strength of top-notch playing, warm camaraderie in the name of a good cause and a good man, a terrific, fully engaged crowd, and grace notes (metaphorically speaking) amidst all the power chords. Here are 10 things I’ll keep with me from Another One for Woody, in no particular order.

The First Half Of NMAS

Whiskey Rock-a-Roller was a hoot, and so was the extended Gordie Johnson sit-in. But how much fun was it to see Luther and Cody Dickinson as a duo, kicking up a fearsome country blues racket with just fuzzed-out guitar and hammering drums? Here’s a band that I remember loving a long time ago, when their sound wasn’t so polished and their jams were country-fried and greased up. They were clearly into it, and while bassist Chris Chew – who wasn’t there – is an integral part of what makes the NMAS the NMAS, this was a solid 20 minutes of down-home hill country duo shit, naturally dirty.

READ ON for nine more highlights from Another One For Woody…

Appearing on the 1967 Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Within You Without You was written by George Harrison. While of course technically a song by “The Beatles”, Harrison is the only member of the band that appears on the recording. For an in-depth musical analysis of the musical structure and more, I recommend reading the notes from Alan W. Pollack.

The Contestants:

In 1998, Bela Fleck & The Flecktones were pairing Within You Without You with their own tune Shanti from their ’98 release Left Of Cool. This Flecktones show features sit-ins from Carter Beauford and Dave Matthews, who sang on the track Communication, also on Left Of Cool.
Audio Source: 10-22-1998

[audio:https://glidemag.wpengine.com/hiddentrack/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/withinbela.mp3]

READ ON for the scoop on the rest of this week’s contestants…

One of the country’s great arena rock venues meets its demise starting today as The Spectrum in Philadelphia meets a four-ton wrecking ball. At noon, Philly’s mayor and Spectrum officials

Ten years after One For Woody, late bassist Allen Woody’s musical family re-assembled at New York’s Roseland Ballroom for Another One For Woody. The emotional high point of the evening

[Originally Published: July 20, 2010]

In a room like this? With you? No way.

Way.

Warning: this edition is hidden in a game that features hedged bets (or is it hendged?).

If you’ve been with this trip this far, you know I don’t summarize, define, illuminate or underline the plot of a particular featured film. Instead, in glorious metaphysical critspeak, I see how the hidden truths of the written word, or sublime sound of the work, speaks to the multiple concepts of good and evil, time and space, and audio and visual.

Pretty much anything is possible here, and that is eerie, too, as the hypnotist, with perfect bedside manner, casually suggests, “Just imagine something pleasant.” And so he does—the universe inside and out…where some arrive, falling from a great post-progressive height, or is it Arriving Somewhere…yes, indeed, this week’s hidden Hidden Flick.

But …we’ve hidden our Hidden Flick in a hidden and dark trail of hidden clues, phishing for clues (Trickster God Alert), with dastardly false clues like a forest, filled with trees:

The ethereal pages of the mythical tome contains symbolic passages on certain pages, when translated into the correct series of words and imagery, that produce infinite levels of interdimensional conquests, and ultimately lead one back through the door, the Rhomboid vortex, indeed, back HOME.

READ ON for more on this week’s Hidden Flick…