at load-in for the show, larry broido – the guitarist i replaced in the late robert hazard‘s band – walked up to me and said, “you know, for a long time i was really pissed at you. but i’m over it now.”
probably not the most at ease i’ve been getting ready for a gig. 🙂
this show had been in the works for a long time – the brainchild of nik everett and longtime hazard bassist freddie ditomasso, the notion was to bring together players from all three phases of roberts’ career – the early new wave days with his band the Heroes, his later howl-era band, the hombres, and the band that was the core of his twilight touring band during the troubador phase for a tribute show featuring material from the whole arc of robert’s career.
during the initial conversations i had with both nik and with freddie, i had protested the notion of doing the show at chaplin’s – not due to personal reasons or ill will or any of that sort of thing, but because the feng shui of the place just didn’t make for a smooth set of transitions for a show like this.
if you’ve never been to chaplins’, it’s what we refer to as a “shoebox” – there are no entrances or exits to the stage, but through the room itself. there’s a green room upstairs, but you can’t get on – or off – the stage without making your way through the seated audience.
for a show like this that would require a litany of people getting on and off the stage, it had huge potential for painfulness – and i certainly availed myself of multiple opportunities to point that out.
but – freddie, bless his heart, had a plan – and for the most part, he made it work.
the show was tommy geddes and kenny barnard on drums, rick bell and michael vernnachio on keys, larry and myself on guitars and various other stringed instruments, and freddie on bass…along with a pretty decent cast of characters playing the role of robert hazard for the evening (or, as it were, singing his songs)…and everyone involved did an awesome job.
we had gotten together the night before for the sole rehearsal – i understand that there was one other rehearsal for the performers who were playing during the first set (which as largely acoustic), but i was unavailable for that one, so i had to accompany those folks on the fly…which i’ve done before, and besides – it’s not as though i was unfamiliar with the material, right?
freddie had asked me to sing a song for this show, and for me the choice was pretty obvious.
there was a song that robert had written that we’d played live a couple of times called “summerland” – luckily, one of those times was for scott birney’s radio show…and someone had taped it, so the song was preserved for posterity as such. robert did it at the very bottom of his range, though…which was gonna be a problem for me. but – the solution – i played it on the baritone in the same chord set, which moved it to G – and that was all but perfect, from a range perspective.
(you’ll have to click through the link below to see the video – unfortunately, it’s only available at this site, and their embed code doesn’t play well with wordpress.)
tom hampton performing “summerland” by robert hazard
i also sang “somebody else’s dream” in the second set, but that song was something of an afterthought, for me…i’ve always enjoyed playing it, because it was a showcase for the lap steel, but “summerland” was my personal high point of the evening. i also enjoyed accompanying michael tearson on “i want you” and debuting that for the room…that song being the one that michael had done for the first of the RH tributes that we’d done at steel city with eric andersen. michael had suggested to robert that he cover that tune in the fashion that we ultimately ended up doing it in…slower and more deliberate…and michael has adopted it in the same blueprint since.
other highlights: jd malone tearing down the house with his version of “nobody but the night”….he had everybody in the room up on their feet before the band kicked in, and had them in the palm of his hand. nik everett did an awesome “change reaction”, tearson did “blue mountain” during the so-called electric second set, and kenny goodman – who i’d never met before – came up to close out the night with some of the old heroes material – “out of the blue”, “escalator of life”, and “blowin’ in the wind”…and absolutely killed all of them. in fact, he sounded uncannily like the robert of that era…and i don’t think that was lost on many people in the room that night.
i had met larry at the previous night’s rehearsal, but we didn’t really get much of an opportunity to talk at all, what with trying to run through everything and tighten up the show – but we developed a real musical rappore during the show itself. we complemented one another in a way that doesn’t often happen organically the way it evolved during the course of the night…and i don’t think it was lost on either of us. in fact, i feel like larry is a foil now…we have a really nice, natural vibe between the two of us, and i really enjoyed playing with him.
after the show was over and we’d spent quite a bit of time chatting with the folks who’d made the trip, those of us who had stuck around took some pictures outside and went looking for an open diner to grab something to eat…the diner around the corner from the venue was closed, the phoenix was closed, and the iron hill brewery had stopped serving food as well…it felt like someone up there was trying to tell us that the evening was over and it was time to go home.
it was certainly a bittersweet drive home…a quiet one, too. i couldn’t bring myself to turn on any music in the car…i was still taking in everything that had happened over the course of the night.
...from the rear view mirror 