Jefferson Starship rolled into The Den tonight and I caught this show by myself. True, it is a loser who Dens alone, but when the godfather of psychedelic rock, Paul Kantner, is there then you must go, albeit sans amigo.
First a little history. Kantner is the sole remaining member of the original band. It was he, Grace Slick and Marty Balin who drove this band in the 60s and 70s. During this period they morphed from the world’s preeminent LSD band to a hard rockin’ pop band. By the end of the 70s Slick and Balin were gone. Then in April 1979 the band hired Mickey Thomas to replace Balin and that was the beginning of the end. Replacing Balin with Thomas would be akin to the Stones replacing Mick Jagger with Michael Bolton. Bad.
Anyway, the show was a good one. Kantner, at 70 years of age, looked it. He was confined to a chair throughout the show. This was painful to see as my memories of him were of wild rhythm axe-man. The lead guitar duties were handled quite admirably by Slick Aquilar, who at times would walk over to chair-bound Kantner for a jam session, only it looked more like a child next to a department store Santa. Sad.
The set list was perfect, which included several Airplane tunes. The best song of the night was Wooden Ships which became a ten minute jam session with Aquilar driving it home. Law Man was done to perfection, as lead singer Cathy Richardson’s voice was uniquely her own while at the same time eerily similar to Slick. Richardson’s antics were rife with sensuality and whacked out looking eyes. However, she lost me entirely during White Rabbit during which she crawled around the stage with the back of her sweater pulled over her head. I found her actions irritating as this was THE song that I wanted to see. Mad.
The Starship songs were done well including Miracles, Fast Buck Freddy, Jane and Count On Me. During the latter song Richardson implored the crowd to sing along, something they failed to do. In fact, this was the most lackluster crowd I think I have seen at The Den, which was not deserved because the band could actually rock. They were flat at times, but generally they rocked. The show ended with a three man jam as only Aquilar remained with drummer and keyboardist as they tore through ten minutes of instrumental While My Guitar Gently Weeps. When the rest of the band returned to the stage they ripped through Somebody to Love and ended with Volunteers, both done very well. Glad
Essentially, I go to The Den to see rock legends perform their songs. Seeing Kantner on stage strumming along to White Rabbit is all I needed. He is a trooper, but clearly the years of “licking the stamp” have slowed the man down like a slow swimming fish. Shad.
Tonight I took an airplane ride and it rocked.
Vick
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