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Popa Chubby (guitar, vocals, drums)
Mike Lattrell (keyboards, vocals)
Nick D’Amato (bass guitar, vocals)
Brian Wolfe
(drums)
No Broken Guitars, No Broken Drum Heads, No Problems
Popa
Chubby was in excellent form and the band with new drummer Brian Wolfe
were on top of the music and the world.
The
show began at 10:30 instead of the usual 10:00 start time for the other
bands that we’ve seen perform there, so between 10:00 and 10:30 the
audience (ourselves included) were getting a little restless.
We
arrived at 6:15 for the soundcheck and got to talk to the band members for
a good hour and a quarter and at about 7:30 I aquired two hard wood chairs
and positioned them right in front of the stage for Brigitte and I and
used the edge of the stage for our table. The band was just coming out of
the back room and heading back to the hotel to get ready for the show,
Popa looked over across the empty room and saw us sitting there by our
lonesome selves and he just smiled from ear to ear.
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That’s
where we stayed put until 1:00 AM when we were released from the crowd of
Popa’s fans who held us hostage from their sheer numbers standing behind
us.
The
show lasted for two and a quarter hours which included an extended encore
of Popa’s guitar work and a duel drum solo with Brian.
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SET LIST:
- Diesel
and Jet Fuel
- Dirty
Lie
- Chubby
Time
- Already
Stoned
- White
Boy Blues
- NYC
Blues
- (New
Song) that included Sweet Liberty
- Pipeline
- Hey Joe
- Walk On The Wild Side
- Wild Thing
- POPA---RAP
- A Jazz Jam (forgot the real title)
- Caffeine and Nicotine
- Stay Down Baby ( forgot the real title)
- Daddy
Played the Guitar and Mama Was A Disco Queen
- How’d A White Boy Get The Blues?
- Somebody
Let the Devil Out
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We
can tell you it was very loud sitting right between those stage monitors
and in front of Popa himself. Ringing ears is a small
price to pay for prime seating and being bombarded with the music
of Popa Chubby for three hours (sound check included).
Popa
(Ted Horwitz) is an incredible talent and he does it his way, during the
sound check he said to Henry “up with the drum sound, down with the bass guitar
it’s too loud and he won’t be able to play the way he likes and if
monitors squeel that’s where I want it, I want to be able to hear
myself no matter what. Alright that’s it Popa says now leave everything
alone, don’t touch anything and off the stage he goes. He walks over
shakes my hand, says hello to Brigitte and then signs our new guestboook,
cd covers and a large poster we brought with us from the Alando gig. Back
on stage the drummer needs some adjustments, more of this and less of that
and Mike Lattrell on the keyboards also needs some fine tuning before all
is ready.
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During
the show nothing is adjusted and for the duration it is go go go, green
light Rock’n Blues set on full throttle. During the show
Popa drinks a bottle of water in three large gulps, wipes the sweat
off of himself two or three times then he’s back at it again and again
and again.
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Brian missed a
drum cue in one of the songs and Popa headed in his direction with guitar
ready to be thrown right through the drum head—then changes his mind and
aims the head of the guitar right at Brian and both Popa and Brian burst
out laughing at the situation—just good fun and nothings lost in the
music.
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Nick D’Amato on the bass guitar does an incredible ten minute
solo as Popa watches and enjoys it with us.
Popa
talks to the audience about George Bush and the moron that Bush is and the
Germans agree—which leeds into Schroder who Popa says is kissing
George’s ass so much that….. well enough said, you never know who
reads this review anyways---and after all it is only music we’re talking
about.
As
always Popa loves his fans and we all love him just as much.
The set is over, the band and Popa head for the back room—they
come back out for the encore. Popa now has a whole cake in his hand from
the dressing room, he proceeds to toss some pieces into the crowd and says
“I thought you might be hungry so I wanted to share this with you” he
walks over to us and between the dozen or so hands reaching for some
morsel of food he has one person in mind and he places a piece gently into
Brigitte’s hand.
The
encore consisted of some great guitar playing and a duel drum solo with
Brian and Popa, that lasted twenty minutes. After shaking hands with the
fans from the stage he then proceeds to the dressing room for a few
minutes, comes out signs cd’s ect. and then back into the dressing room
to do a radio interview.
We
make our rounds to say thank you and good-by to everyone in the band and
at the Blues Garage owners Henry and Ramona and head home.
Concert Review by Dave and Brigitte
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