Greetings Fellow Jukians –
Hope this finds you all well and looking forward to the summer (aka Jukes High Season.) The guys kicked off “Chaos 2011” with a fun show out in the Hamptons at the Stephen Talkhouse. Having attended last year’s show there, I was happy to return to this venue again … sans hurricane.
Anyone who follows my crazy concert exploits knows how often I am on the bus going somewhere. So, in true Big Apple Girl fashion, I took the Hampton Jitney…but upgraded to the fancy-schmancy one…the one where they actually serve wine during the trip and you get wi-fi and fully-reclining leather seats. #Winning (I think it was much nicer than the bus the band ended up on all weekend … sorry guys!)
Well, upon arriving, I met up with the other chicas (Tasha, Quilly and Peaches) and after a quick chat with Jeff, John (Conte), Chris and Billy outside the venue, we headed off for some dinner at “that pizza place.” There’s only one so it doesn’t matter that nobody knew what it was called. Oh, actually Jeff Kazee did…strange collection of knowledge in that man’s head.
Anyhoo, on to the show. Regardless of the comp’d drink tab last time, we requested a table NOT under the leaky speaker and were blessed with being literally smack-dab in the middle table at the front. Well, in truth, they only had three of us seated there but we just stood looking at the host and acted confused and dumbfounded until he gave in and put us all together. LOL
So, no free drinks this time … oh wait, not true! Towards the end of the show Southside was kind enough to fill my glass as well as Peaches’ with his not-so-secret concoction from the black duct-taped cup. Thanks, Johnny. Much appreciated…I think.
One of the things I truly LOVE about this band is that everybody can really play…and you never EVER know what you’re going to get, especially when it comes to spontaneous covers. I often envision a little gnome inside Kazee’s and/or Johnny’s brain flipping wildly thru some huge cheat book of thousands of songs.
This show brought two such fun moments – first was after Southside had taken the cell phone of a girl at the table next to ours and saw that she had a picture of her dog as the screensaver. All of a sudden, Kazee starts Rufus Thomas’s “Walking the Dog” and like magic, the whole band just seemed to fall into place. As a classical musician who is married to what’s on the page/composer’s intent/blah blah blah, these off-the-cuff performances always astound me. As an aside, I was MOST grateful Southside did not grab MY phone, which sports a picture of me and Jon Bon Jovi as the screensaver. I can just imagine the endless ridicule I would have gotten over that. (By the way, JBJ did not show this time if y’all were wondering.) Note to self: change screensaver to “Southside, You Da Man!” before next show.
We had another unplanned cover later in the show with a rip-roaring “CC Rider” after Southside had inquired as to what key they were in (funny how Johnny always thinks they are in A when they are actually in C. Hmmm?)
The rest of the set was a great mix of classic Jukes tunes with newer Pills & Ammo tracks and a couple of songs from “Men Without Women” (due to be recorded at the July 2nd Stone Pony show.) “Princess of Little Italy” seems to be a favorite in the encore set right now, having also heard it at the Morristown show. Always nice to hear Jeff do some work on the accordion. Other highlights included Umbrella in My Drink (which isn’t played all that often), a beautiful-if-not-slightly-odd version of Lost (my favorite song) and some great solos by the horns, especially Eddie doing dual sax duty.
I included a few pictures below but the lighting was lousy. Really wanted to capture a shot of The Three Stooges (Jeff/JC/Billy) kicking each other but no-go. Between their shenanigans, the ever-amusing antics of the horn section and Johnny being … well … Johnny – the show was a fun way to kick off the summer.
So, next up for the full Jukes is BB Kings on Saturday. But, I’m looking forward to tomorrow night at the Stone Pony when Outside the Box, Southside and Jeff Kazee join forces to perform Elvis Costello’s album “My Aim is True” … that should be incredible!
S’all for now folks. See you on the road.
Xoxo
Big Apple Girl
P.S. I was also able to hear the Early Elton Trio performance in Hempstead, Long Island on Saturday night. Kazee, Conte and Pagano were awesome. There are some shots from that show in the gallery below, as well.
