Popa Chubby - River Street Jazz Cafe 9-10-10

Popa Chubby, back at the Jazz Cafe. This is probably my 15th or so time seeing him. If he came to town more often, the number would be higher.
For the uninitiated, Popa's music is a nice mix of Freddie King and Stevie Ray with lots of ball-busting attitude thrown in for good measure. He is a master of the guitar and his songs often stretch out to 15 minute jams full of tons of licks from his bottomless bag of tricks.
He played two sets tonight, the first of which was full of the old classics, "Stress Will Kill You Every Time", "Sweet Goddess of Love & Beer" and "Same Old Blues" to name a few.
Near the end of the first set, things got a little weird. Poppa decided to read a passage from his forthcoming book "Road Rot - Tales from the Road".
Now as much as I appreciate his humor and enjoy reading his stories on the website, a 20 minute story in a seedy jazz club, smack dab in the middle of a blistering set, seemed ill-timed. Many people took this as an opportunity to grab a smoke and some left and didn't bother coming back.
A short story in the middle of a night of drunken blues was not really working with this crowd.
Anyway, after that little detour, the music continued with a smokin' version of Bob Dylan's "Knockin' on Heaven's Door". Never heard Popa do this one before but would love to hear it again because it rocked.
After a short break, Popa and the band were back. They opened with a 9 minute instrumental that transformed into Otis Redding's "Sittin' On the Dock of the Bay". After that we were treated to a 20 minute instrumental jam that was reminiscent of the Allman Brothers with it's peaks and valleys.
The set closer was "Sweat" from his 1995 release Booty and the Beast. I think Popa has probably played this song every time I've seen him and it never gets old. Great tune.
The only small disappointment of the night was the omission of "Somebody Let the Devil Out". Being that the song was inspired by the bombing of the Twin Towers and it was now 9/11, I thought for sure he would dust that one off.
In any case, it was another night of smokin' guitar from Popa and a great night out with the boys.
Let's hope Popa continues to make his way back to Wilkes-Barre, or Wil-kes Berry or Wilkes-Berry. I don't care how he says it, as long as he never forgets us.

Neil Young with Pearl Jam - Listen to this Eddie!

This is a show that has been in my collection for years and I decided to break it out the other day and give it another listen. The show is from June 24, 1995 in San Francisco, California.
The majority of the recording is made from an outstanding audience tape while a small portion of the Vedder / Pearl Jam set comes from another audience source that, while isn't quite as good as the Neil part, is also pretty darn good.
The show starts out with the Neil part first even though chronologically , it was last.
The Pearl Jam set starts out with Vedder on board and sounding pretty much like he normally does. The problem was, he was actually sick as a dog. After just seven songs, he announces his dilemma to the crowd, apologizes, and exits. Luckily, Neil Young was also on the bill this day and being good friends with Pearl Jam, offers to fill in for the ailing Vedder.
While most of the audience didn't seem to mind the thought of seeing a legend fronting their favorite band, there were of course a few people who weren't very happy about the situation and there are people actually booing at times. This obviouly doesn't bother Young, in fact, he seemed to thrive on the adversity.
He leads the band through a blistering set of songs, including 7 selections from the Neil / Pearl Jam collaboration 'Mirror Ball', the only time they would be performed during the tour.
In addition to the 'Mirror Ball' songs, Neil performs many of his own classics including Powderfinger, Needle and the Damage Done, and of course Rockin' in the Free World. There's also killer versions of Down By the River and Cortez the killer. Neil was obviously inspired to be jamming with these young rockers that he so obviously influenced.
This cd is very enjoyable and I would recommend it to both Pearl Jam and Neil fans alike.
It was definitely a rare occasion and thankfully, someone was there to capture it on tape.
I believe I picked this up in NYC a few years back but I saw it recently on the blog http://musictravellerstwo.blogspot.com
Good stuff. Enjoy.