Orpheum Theatre - Los Angeles 2/14/08

[Cody Was]

Goldenvoice in association with Bill Silva Presents:
2nd Annual Valentine's Day Show with
Was Not Was featuring Brian Wilson & Kris Kristofferson
Orpheum Theatre
Los Angeles
2/14/08 @ 7pm

www.laorpheum.com

[Cody Was]

LA Times review...



Was (Not Was) time-travels back to its glorious chaos

Was (Not Was) revives its dance/avant-garde mash-up at the Orpheum but is not stuck in the past.
By Ann Powers, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 16, 2008
Don Was kept it simple, pushing his bass to the side as he introduced the long-missed conglomeration onstage at the Orpheum Theatre on Thursday night. "We're Was (Not Was)," he said. "From Detroit." He spoke the truth, though several decades separated the band's original members from their funky hometown.

A Detroit of the musical imagination is the stamping ground of Was (Not Was) -- a place where there's no contradiction between dance floor imperatives and the dictates of the avant-garde, where usually distanced genres melt into a vivid puddle, and where telling a good joke is just as important as making a glorious noise.

"Was (Not Was), like Detroit, is an endearing mess," Creem editor Brian J. Bowe wrote in 2004. More of a mash-up than a mess, I'd say. It resurfaced like a beautiful mirage at this Valentine's Day party, which also featured guest artists Kris Kristofferson and Brian Wilson broadening the map from Nashville to California.

Was (Not Was), the poetic funk band that thrived during the anything-goes 1980s, is back with a new album, "Boo!," to be released April 8. The group, formed in 1979 by childhood friends Don and David (born f*genson and Weiss), was key within the movement that transformed art rock into a liberating antidote to Reaganism.

Today's gifted retro-fetishists, like Mark Ronson, could take a chill pill from this band's cabinet; Was (Not Was) is that rare thing, an interracial group with an encyclopedic sense of pop history but no interest in the fuss or fashion consciousness of soul revivalism.

This night showed the recently reunited group in muscular form. Original singers Sweet Pea Atkinson, Sir Harry Bowens and Donald Ray Mitchell crowned long musical workouts in soulful harmonies. Atkinson's lead vocals showed off his skills as a shouter, while Bowens took the reins on smoother, falsetto-oriented songs. Drummer James Gadson, who co-wrote and played on many of Bill Withers' hits as well as "I Will Survive" and "Dancing Machine," kept things lubricated on the bottom.

Decked out in gleaming zoot suits, the singers were equally at home delivering old-school soul or the Surrealist sci-fi lyrics of "I Blew Up the United States" and "Out Come the Freaks," written by flutist and occasional vocalist David Was. The effect was a little bit Zappa and a whole lot George Clinton, especially when David himself took the mike and rapped in his organization-man monotone.

David's lyrics conjured images of Fidel Castro, time travel and a boat trip shared by Donovan and Curtis Mayfield. The mash-up that featured that fantasy captured the night's sound: greasy psychedelic soul. Keyboardist Jamie Muhoberac, killer guitarist Randy Jacobs and saxophonist Paul Shilts rounded out the band. Don, who now spends his days as a superstar producer, seemed overjoyed to lay back and slap his bass.

The Orpheum's cushy seats waylaid the dance party that should have erupted, but the crowd did get up for the night's guest stars. Kristofferson, who worked with Don on his 2006 album, "This Old Road," crooned his greats, including "Sunday Morning Coming Down" and "The Silver Tongued Devil and I," with conversational ease. He wore his legend like an old pair of jeans, interrupting himself with wisecracks and enjoying trying to harmonize with the fuller-voiced Bowens.

Wilson, always unpredictable onstage, loped out near the evening's end with several of his own band members in tow. "Hasn't this night been a gas?" he exclaimed, revving up for a raucous "California Girls." He was more tentative on the ballad "God Only Knows" but then spearheaded the night's goofiest moment: an all-hands-on-deck round of "Row Row Row Your Boat."

Don Was declared it time for an encore, and the band and all guests (including the wonderful Jill Sobule, who opened) joined in on a Tex-Mex version of Kristofferson's "Me and Bobby McGee." Wilson did a knee-slapping dance stage left; Bowens and Kristofferson shared a mike. It was chaos. Good chaos. The kind that happens in that mythical Detroit, the one Was (Not Was) still brings to town.

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www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/reviews/music/la-et-was16feb16,1,7392107.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

[Cody Was]

I emailed Ann about the set list and this is what she said...

Hi Cody,

don't have a set list but here's what I remember, not in a particular
order:

-- Papa Was a Rolling Stone
-- Dad I'm in Jail
-- Semi Interesting Week (new one)
-- Out Come the Freaks
-- Walk the Dinosaur
not sure what else....

Kristofferson did
-- Help Me Make it thru the Night
-- Sunday Morning Coming Down
-- Moment of Forever
-- Silver Tongued Devil and I

Brian Wilson did
California Girls
Fun Fun Fun
God Only Knows

then they all did that Me & Bobby McGee together.

thanks for reading!
xakp

[Cody Was]

Variety review...

www.variety.com/review/VE1117936229.html?categoryid=34&cs=1

Was (Not Was); Brian Wilson; Kris Kristofferson
(Orpheum Theater, 2,058 capacity, $45 top)
By MATT KIVEL
Presented by Goldenvoice. Reviewed Feb. 14, 2008.

Band: Don Was, David Was, Brian Wilson, Kris Kristofferson, Sweet Pea Atkinson, Sir Harry Bowens, James Gadson, Jamie Muhoberac, Paul Shilts, Randy Jacobs, Donald Ray Mitchell, Jill Sobule, Darian Sahanaja, Jeffrey Foskett, Scott Bennett.

In their second annual Valentine's Day concert, Was (Not Was) delighted a semi-filled Orpheum theater by sticking to familiar material and augmenting their performance with sets by songwriting luminaries Brian Wilson and Kris Kristofferson. Was singers Sweet Pea Atkinson, Donald Ray Mitchell and Sir Harry Bowens were appearing together for the first time in 15 years and in top form, transmitting David Was' bizarre lyrical couplets with a studied, soulful precision.

Throughout the set, most of the band awkwardly bobbed and plodded around the stage, but Atkinson maintained a captivating presence simply by nodding his head and coolly delivering the lines. His plum-colored fedora and white Zoot suit visually separated him from the rest of the band, whose collective appearance was far less intriguing.

David Was' flute playing was mostly inaudible, but he did take center stage on a few numbers, delivering a series of strange sing-speak monologues over sleek, funk backdrops. The group played a career spanning set that matched hits like "Walk the Dinosaur" and "Papa Was a Rolling Stone" with album tracks such as "11 MPH," "Dad I'm in Jail" and "I Feel Better Than James Brown."

Kristofferson's humble folk ballads were a fitting foil to the Was boys' snarky brand of studio funk. Singing in a rich, weathered baritone, his self-effacing songs were heightened in depth and emotion by the world-weariness he now brings to them.

The evening was pleasantly capped by an energetic performance from Wilson, who plowed through a series of Beach Boys favorites with reckless abandon. He seemed genuinely thrilled to be onstage, goose-stepping and clapping along to spirited versions of "Fun, Fun, Fun," "California Girls, and "God Only Knows." It didn't matter that he wasn't hitting half of his notes or that the trio of Was (Not Was) singers hardly knew the words to his songs -- it was a treat to see Brian Wilson have this much fun.
More than one option

* (Person) Brian Wilson
Song, Song Performer, Actor
* (Person) Brian Wilson
Actor
* (Person) Brian Wilson
Driver
* (Person) brian wilson

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* (Person) Scott Bennett
Music, Original Score, Song
* (Person) Scott Bennett
Actor
* (Person) Scott Bennett

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* (Co) Beach Boys
* (Person) The Beach Boys

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