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George Thorogood and his merry band the Destroyers have plied their simple blues/rock-boogie trade for roughly 23 years, and, except for the number of players on stage and that whole natural-aging process, not a hell of a lot has changed. Thorogood has made a decent living reinterpreting the blues, adding a harder edge to the well-worn form. Songs by Elmore James, Howlin' Wolf, and especially John Lee Hooker have all been given the Destroyers treatment, and damn near everything Sir George remakes comes out looking even more road-worn and weary.
Thorogood, who chose a career in music over baseball, also hit it big with a few originals, namely "I Drink Alone", "If You Don't Stop Drinking (I'm Gonna Leave)", "Gear Jammer", and "You Talk Too Much". Sure, he puts out an album every now and then, and there are usually one or two great songs, one or two clunkers, and the rest, standard material. (Bonus points if you can name the band's 2006 release -- answer below.)
George and the boys (a total of five) pulled into the North Fork Theatre at Westbury for their final stop on the early leg of their current tour. An "in-the-round" house, the club was curtained off so that only two-thirds of the seats are exposed. There really wasn't a bad seat in the house, and the stage, which normally rotates, stayed still.
When the house lights dimmed, the PA began to blast Barry McGuire's "Eve of Destruction". The band took the stage shortly thereafter, opening with "Rock Party". As one who has witnessed at least five Thorogood performance, it was fair to say that there was an air of disconnect early on. Oh, the quintet was solid and cohesive, but something told me that, at least at the start of the set, Thorogood, the band, and the audience were operating as three separate units, each desperately trying to find each other. Thorogood was intent on being more of a showman, the band was intent on being a band, and the crowd was somewhere in between.
A cardinal sin of the live show is the reluctance of the leader to introduce new or unfamiliar members -- hell, they're up there playing their guts out and deserve some recognition. While longtime bassist Bill Blough and stalwart drummer Jeff Simon needed no introduction -- their playing was its usual solid self, laying down the foundation for everyone else to become tangential -- Thorogood would have done well to introduce his second guitarist (Jim Suhler) and saxophonist (Buddy Leach). They earned it.
Thorogood is at his best when he wears that metal slide bar on his finger and applies it to the neck of a guitar. Thorogood was more interested in playing showman early on, though, allowing Suhler to take leads on "Night Time" and "I Drink Alone". Of course, when everyone except Thorogood and Simon left the stage and Uncle Georgie started to tell us a story, everything kicked up several notches. Thorogood, left to his own devices (with the help of Simon's steady bass thumping), worked his slide during the spoken intro to "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer" like it was the only thing that mattered. The rest of the band came back on to complete the tune, and finally everyone was in sync. For the rest of the night, all was well, as Thorogood threw his showmanship out the window during songs, and just played.
When Thorogood does decide to play, he puts one mean, nasty hurt on his guitars, making them scream, squeal, and squawk. This gives the songs a nastier edge -- his slide solo on "Bad to the Bone" brought the house down. He even stretched "Gear Jammer" out a bit, taking a long solo which pushed the song even harder than on record. And, though it took him until the encore to figure things out, his best song of the night (outside of "One Bourbon...") was "You Talk Too Much", a tune that allowed both his playfulness and intensity to peacefully coexist.
You know what you're getting at a GT&tD show, and more often than not, it's a good thing. Thorogood covers his hits, some old album cuts, and some new album tunes every night, and he doesn't shirk as he plies his trade. The only line that sometimes blurs is Thorogood's role on stage. Yes, he's the band leader and the main musical focal point, but he does much better when he focuses more on the music than anything else.
(Quiz answer: The Hard Stuff.)
— 6 September 2006
