carl johnson is in the house
last night three bands laid it down upstairs at the blue shamrock aka gemstones, and it was very, very good. trickbag opened the night with some great new orleans flavored funk and made such sonic impression that the room was all about sight lines to the stage, and folks happening to be standing in the wrong right spots were asked to move just a little so that everybody could see what they were putting down. great stuff. mike crutcher (guitar), mark longo (hammond), mike "squid" rush (bass) and russ lane (drums) are the real deal. near the end of their set they invited the rockingly inestimable carl johnson to join 'em, and you knew it was going to be a great night when you heard carl twisting those knobs up to where they oughta be, and that new PA they had in there for the gig helped carl to blow the room away.
carl didn't even let the amp cool off before he and justin beaulieu and peter capra (the carl johnson trio) ripped into their set of carl originals (rightbackatcha, she ain't comin back, sofa blues, and, yeah it's a love song, etc. etc. etc.), and classic covers like luther allison's cherry red wine, and the capstone of the evening, neil young's mr. soul. story around the room was that carl's gig at the thirsty ear last friday sent the kids into overdrive looking for a place for the trio to come back and hit 'em again, and let's just say they know what's good for 'em down there in cambridge, for sure.
by that time the old blues jr. was glowing red, and it was time for jen kearney and the lost onion to bring carl back to the stage yet again to give the people what they want. pete maclean had the catbird's seat up back behind his set, and claire finley was looking so hot i'm not even sure i'm allowed to talk about it. (word is it was a that-day barbie kiberstis original do, and i gotta say, barbie rocks). carl was regularly visited throughout the evening by claire and her pedulla penta buzz (i love the way even the name of her bass sounds dirty) and mark money shot mullins had his trumpet on overdrive. and jen... hot. one word. hot.
they were shopping classic circa-2005 "layers" ep's, and i got one, along with trick bag's "hip shot", and if they had a cj trio disc, i'd have bagged one of those too. one of those evenings for the record books, because i'll be able to say i was there when.
and treat her right is playing at toad tonight in cambridge. finestkind!
edited to correct the trickbag lineup per mike's generous correction!
carl didn't even let the amp cool off before he and justin beaulieu and peter capra (the carl johnson trio) ripped into their set of carl originals (rightbackatcha, she ain't comin back, sofa blues, and, yeah it's a love song, etc. etc. etc.), and classic covers like luther allison's cherry red wine, and the capstone of the evening, neil young's mr. soul. story around the room was that carl's gig at the thirsty ear last friday sent the kids into overdrive looking for a place for the trio to come back and hit 'em again, and let's just say they know what's good for 'em down there in cambridge, for sure.
by that time the old blues jr. was glowing red, and it was time for jen kearney and the lost onion to bring carl back to the stage yet again to give the people what they want. pete maclean had the catbird's seat up back behind his set, and claire finley was looking so hot i'm not even sure i'm allowed to talk about it. (word is it was a that-day barbie kiberstis original do, and i gotta say, barbie rocks). carl was regularly visited throughout the evening by claire and her pedulla penta buzz (i love the way even the name of her bass sounds dirty) and mark money shot mullins had his trumpet on overdrive. and jen... hot. one word. hot.
they were shopping classic circa-2005 "layers" ep's, and i got one, along with trick bag's "hip shot", and if they had a cj trio disc, i'd have bagged one of those too. one of those evenings for the record books, because i'll be able to say i was there when.
and treat her right is playing at toad tonight in cambridge. finestkind!
edited to correct the trickbag lineup per mike's generous correction!
Labels: carl johnson, claire finley, jen kearney, lost onion, mark mullins, music, pete maclean
posted by kad barma at 4:02 PM
2 Comments:
It was a fun show. We enjoyed bringing Carl up onstage with us, and I particularly enjoyed trading licks with him. More about me and Trick Bag at http://trickbagmusic.com. BTW, our current drummer is Russ Lane, not Dave Fox, who did appear on the Hip Shot CD. Glad you enjoyed the show.
--Mike C.
omg I'm in a Craig blog!!! I'm not worthy.
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