Ted Nugent
Live @ DTE
July 19th,
2014
DTE is quite
a venue for live music, plenty of seating in a large pavilion with a few acres
of lawn behind the pavilion that allow concert goers to stretch out and watch
the show with the aid of huge screen. For the most part you cannot see your
heroes up close and personal either inside the pavilion or outside on the lawn.
You have to trust that they are actually onstage and they are not just
televised images in a time warp. Once the headliner (Nugent) hit the stage
everyone stood up and they remained standing the entire show, even though they can only see sweaty backs,
round heads and a sea of arrhythmic dancing. I’d like to believe I was actually
a part of the experience though I still have my doubts. Concession stands were
packed with hungry concert goers, $16 strawberry vodka lemonade (only $1 per
ounce), $4 thumbnail buckets of stale eat-at-your-own-risk popcorn, thin on corn
and hip to the kernel. I heard one hungry native son grabbed a hot dog without
paying and was summarily executed for his crimes against humanity and profit.
Old people and bikers shuffled in - slowly, quietly as if this was there last
chance to remember what it was like in the sixties when they were young and had
something valuable to say about love, life and peace. These booters are old for
sure, me too. I’m in a post mid-life timeline, building my 401K, knowing all
along that it’s not enough. As I pondered my very existence and wondered what
the hell was I doing here anyway, the first band took the stage.
The Rockets
are a powerful 6-piece band led by Michigan Rock legend Johnny Badanjek, one of
the greatest drummers of all time. It is well known that most of our rock &
roll heroes have experienced tough times, poverty and illness. Life is not fair
and our heroes were exploited by businessmen, record executives, music
publishers and attorneys. Johnny B knows the score. He never got paid but he
never gave up. Case in point was his performance with the Rockets. He was in
the pocket like Buddy Rich on speed. His strokes were powerful and elastic. If
that was not enough he also sang back up harmonies. The lead singer was a
slightly overweight middle aged dude with an incredible voice. He wore John
Wayne cowboy fringe and danced around the stage like Joe Cocker on a good night
of boozing and pill popping...it wasn’t just a fashion blip, it was a statement
of purpose and honor. The organ player barely scratched the surface and the
guitarist was like caterpillar that turned into a butterfly. He sure enough had
the gris gris and never gave up hope for a better tomorrow when his e-string
proclivities would be admired and he would land a better paying gig. The
Rockers are an excellent band and the songs are rockin’ gems. Songs like
Desire, Taking it Back have all the elements of fine craftsmanship, stops and
starts and impeccable timing. Badanjek reconstructed Mitch Ryder’s
deconstruction of Lou Reed’s masterpiece Rock & Roll. The singer even
sounds a bit like Ryder. The next tune, an old blues gem entitled Whiskey Hand
was a tribute to the late great Johnny Winter. Johnny B did the intro, “much
peace, lots of love.” The Rockets had a hit with Peter Green’s masterpiece “Oh
Well” and they re-created the vibe with a knockout cover of the song. It was
the Rockets only hit. Johnny B kept it all together. It was an exceptional
performance
Brownsville
Station without Cub Coda is like Paul without John or Mick without Keith. It
just doesn’t work very well Mike Lutz is the only original member but he is a
firebrand. He hits all the right notes and takes over Cub’s vocals and stage
patter with great felicity. The set was stacked heavy with goodtime rock &
roll, good vibes and tight pacing. They opened with Bare Footin’ (the B-side to
Smokin’). It was evident that the diminutive singer/guitarist Arlen Viecelli
(from Salem Witchcraft) had all the goods. . He took on Cub’s role as the high
priest of good times and peripatetic overdrive. He jumped from then floor to
the drum stand and flew across the floor. The band was in command, the longtime
drummer Henry “H-Bomb” Weck kept a tight grip on the rhythm section giving lots
of room for the players to make their own musical statements. Viecelli
possesses a magnificent tenor that gives legs to a love song like She Put the
Light On. Though it was a minor hit, Martian Boogie gained steam as Lutz did
Cub Koda’s rap about greasy diners serving grease bombs with no catsup and no
mayonnaise. Cub Coda is missed - big time. This is a band that went from a
roots rock band to being a show band, after the success of Smokin’ in the Boys
Room. You gain some; you lose some. Lutz did a good job in preserving the
memory of Brownsville Station. The Kings of the Party was their last hit
novelty song. It had a cool fifties vibe and they played it to the hilt. This
was an excellent high energy set. However, the band may not be able to advance
past the oldies circuit with an aging hits repertoire.
Ted Nugent
was the headliner and he did not disappoint. If you like your style of sound,
music and rap to be outrageous, totally off the hook and just this side of
incoherence then Nugent is your man. He walked onto the stage with a spectacle
of lights that recall the roar and explosiveness of a 4th of July
junket consisting of lots of beer, dope and speed to get everyone juiced up for
a rumble. Nugent opened with a heavy metal supersonic warp speed version of
Street Fighting Man. Nugent screams “DO YOU FUCKING GET ME.” I screamed back
“no” but he never heard me, instead he listened to his adoring fans who
screamed and clawed to get a closer look. Everyone was standing up blocking the
view of everyone behind them, though I could occasionally glimpse a glimmer of
our semi-beloved antihero. He segued into Gonzo a musical atomic bomb that
attacked the senses and destroyed most people’s hearing. It was feedback so powerful it made Iggy and
the Stooges fans cringe with horror. Nugent co-opted, recycled and reimagined the Stooges
metal/punk shtick as a nuclear holocaust. This was war - notes were flying
faster than a silver bullet, disorienting masses causing serious disorientation
and mind numbing. Suddenly ten thousand concert goers were mumbling and
shuffling aimlessly down the aisles of the pavilion like walking dead while
Nugent intoned “well, well, well, what do we have here.” He laughed diabolically as he sucked their
blood. He beckoned his tribe, “C’mon, C,mon, C’mon as a frenzy of feedback
exploded the ten high set of speakers all set to the max. Nugent revealed his
philosophy in a cryptic spoken word passage, “God, American, Flashback, Drop.”
The crowd screamed to their guru and he replied, “Yes it’s what the doctor
ordered. Repeat this ten times… No Shit Bitch. Lord have mercy, mercy on my
motor city soul.” The crowd roared their delight despite the fact that they
didn’t understand a single word he said. Free For All got the show back on
track. It’s a great song, Nugent could play it in his sleep. Nugent stopped the
show and opined, “Motor City Madman…PERFECT. What would you do if you were me?
(Spoken three times). Nugent has perfected his version of Detroit’s industrial, discordant music makers and
shakers – those rockers who give a damn about truth.
Nugent
continued to rap. “July 19th 2014 I am back with my blood brothers.
I’m 66 years old, maybe I should tone it down a bit. Tonight I will perfect love,
that love in the motor city. Share the love. Do you feel the love?”
The crowd roared their approval. Nugent
introduced the next tune as the most important love song of all time and begins
that familiar riff, Wang, Dang Sweet Poontang.
Derek St
Holm is Nugent’s right hand man. He is both a great guitarist and a great
singer. He has a rich full-bodied tenor that compliments Nugent’s baritone. He
is Nugent’s secret weapon, the go-to guy whenever the show needs a little lift.
I can’t Quit You Baby is a cover of an old blues standard by Otis Rush. Nugent
plays it straight but segues into a rap about people who have influenced him
from Johnny Winter to Wayne Kramer. He states, “I’ll never forget where I come
from.” Derek St. Holm sings I Can’t Quit
You Babe. His powerful tenor carried the song. Impressive!
Nugent
completed a trifecta of great songs that were all glued together near the end
of the show, each one was a monster – Fred Bear, Cat Scratch Fever and
Stranglehold – a great way to make the night memorable. DTE was totally jam
packed by the time Nugent came onstage. The crowd roared their approval. Me, I
had a headache.
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