THE ROBERT RANDOLPH FAMILY PLAY A MARATHON

I have always thought that the appointment of January 1st as "New Year's Day" was rather arbitrary. In my view, it seems that any day can be considered the beginning of the new year. In fact, if you think about it, each day begins a separate beginning to a period of 365 days. Depending on how you view it, each new "year" can bring different significance. Halloween and the days surrounding that day always seem to hold a particular spot in my life, both personally and musically. Like many folks, October 31st has meant seeing some spectacular "Halloween" concerts over the past ten years. But there is more beyond just the music. One example amongst many is 10/31/98 - the day I asked my wife to marry me.

Last Halloween was another special one. While there are some deeply personal events from that day that I'd rather not mention here, it was that night that I first heard the music of Robert Randolph - another one of those life-changing moments for me. In the midst of a smoking show by Medeski, Martin & Wood, Robert came out and blew me away from note #1. Coincidentally, the review I wrote of that show was the first piece I had published in JamBase (another reason to mark the year this way). Here is what I wrote the next day about my first impressions of Robert:

Just when it seemed that the audience had gotten all it could take, another guest wandered onto stage. Robert Randolph is what I recall his name being - he plays the pedal steel. I have long been a fan of the pedal steel - it's not just for country music, believe me. This guy did some shit with this instrument that you just have to hear to believe. As he got plugged in and ready to roll Medeski got a rocking riff going that harkened "Lovelight" or possibly "Will the Circle Be Unbroken." The full band launched into an all-out jamfest that could have been an early 70's Allman Brothers foray into a 45 minute "Mountain Jam." The change of pace and tone of the show blew smiles onto the audience as they roared with delight. The name of the game was the pedal steel playing. Gorgeous, clean tone with well-timed trills, slow builds and climactic explosions. Ribot did his best to keep pace with some rocking solos of his own. Medeski hugged the organ tight as Wood and Martin just smiled and revelled in the joy of simple rock and roll. It was a jam like no other I had seen this band play, and it flat out blew me away. And this was just the beginning of the highlight run of the show. The encore that followed the well-deserved ovation was icing on the Halloween cake. Ribot and Randolph rejoined them on stage and Wood thumped the opening notes to "Chubb Sub" on his stand-up. First Medeski set the tone with more of the same old genius he had sparkled us with all night. Next, Randolph caught on and got downright soulful. If he wasn't vamping on some Stevie Wonder song, it certainly did sound like it. At this point, I'm basically thinking - who is this guy and where can I see him next?

Unfortunately, I could not make the first gig on Friday night, but there was no way I was going to miss both. First things first, the setlist:

Robert Randolph and the Family Band
Bowery Ballroom | New York City | 3 November 2001

Calypso, Run For Your Life, I Get Joy, Pressing My Way >> Jam >> Instrument Switch Jam+ > Pressing My Way, The March, Voodoo Child Jam*, I Don't Know What You Came To Do, Papa Was A Rolling Stone > I Don't Know Reprise

+ Robert moves to drums and Marcus moves to pedal steel; then Robert moves to bass and Danyell moves to drums; then John moves to drums and Danyell moves to organ then back to "normal."

* w/ Cousin Dwayne on drums for middle jam.

WOW! What a difference a year of serious gigging, writing and touring can do for a band. Despite the looseness and sloppiness of the playing last night, the result was a marathon 2hour40minute set of non-stop blistering pedal steel explosions. New songs, old songs, raucous crowd that was as much a part of the show as the musicians were... do the math. Roughly 8 or 9 songs in 160 minutes = average of almost 20 minutes a song. If there is one complaint, it's that they just don't know how to (or just don't want to) stop playing.

"Calypso" got things started. This is their Santana-influenced groove tune that just hypnotizes from the get-go. Marcus Randolph (cousin #1) lit the fuse on this dynamite stack of an evening; on stage by himself he chukka- chukka'ed it on the drums and set the boogie down. Soon joined by Danyell Morgan on bass (cousin #2) and John Ginty (cousin #3) they flowed into pounding beats and slamming rhythms that took hold and had the entire audience vibrating in step. I imagine one day Robert will convince Carlos to play with him on this song (and God help me to be there to hear it!), but for the time being it will just be Robert's 10 fingers on 13 steely strings. Beautiful and nasty all at once, sparks seem to appear at each point where his fingers touch the strings.

Like most of the Randolph instrumentals, the foundation is a steady beat, an addictive groove and everything else is pretty much open-ended insanity. What seemed to be an infinity of waxing and waning in energy and tempo passed as the band built to an ecstatic climax and then brought it back down. Over and over and over and over, until your body is helpless in the Pavlovian method, throbbing and dancing to the tasty groove is our conditioned response.

"I Get Joy" was a new song that had premiered the previous evening. This brought out the second aspect of a typical Robert Randolph show - the crowd/band dynamic. So often we'll see bands get schmaltzy on stage and it feels to be pandering or just too damn cheesy. When Robert does it, there is an unmistakable feeling that he is 100% genuine. "I Get Joy," like all of Robert's songs, has scant lyrics but the message is plenty deep and powerful - for this one it is that this guy is thankful. Thankful for his life, his abilities and the fact that hundreds of people will come out and participate in his shows on a nightly basis. When he sings "I get joy when I think about what you've done for me" you not only know that he means it from the bottom of his heart. Once encouraged, you also feel the need to sing right back to the stage. Whether it is the first time you are seeing them, or the 10th, or the 25th, Robert and his music have an elating, intoxicating effect that is a mix of euphoric religiousity and a endorphin-fuelled buzz. And I, for one, am thankful for that.

"I Get Joy" was Robert's first chance to get up and "preach" with just the microphone. The year has done wonders for Robert's stage presence and confidence and he now commands your attention with his energy and enthusiasm. But, beyond what was coming through the microphone, the music in this new tune was just sizzling. While it's easy to get caught up in Robert, Robert, Robert, it won't take long for the casual listener to catch a whiff of the nasty funk that Danyell is cooking. Brand new rig in hand, the bass work all over the show is the secret weapon of the Family Band's arsenal. Strum, slap, finger-picking, finger-licking goodness - Danyell has taken his playing and the band to the "next level" over the last year. On "I Get Joy" he propelled the back-up boogie with a bouncing bassline that, like many he injects into the groove, could best be described as "musical Flubber." An unnatural flexibility and bounciness seems to pervade each slap-happy note, and with the sound tuned so crisply on the bass last night, it was tough to miss a single one. Robert's joy literally spread into the audience and over the stage as he got the audience en masse to sing along, and then picked out some freaks in the crowd to get them to express their joy as well.

"I Feel Like I Am Pressing My Way" has been one of my favorites since the first time I heard it this past winter. It starts off as a slow ballad-ish number that provided the only real quiet moment of the show. All of Robert's songs are messages of extreme optimism, of happiness, joy, love and perseverance. "Pressing My Way" is the epitome of this - and in these times, messages like these are particularly applicable. The title and the message are self-explanatory, but the music does most of the talking for the band. Sure, it starts off with a bluesy, moaning cry that rocks back and forth slowly. It doesn't take long, though, for Robert to encourage the band and the audience to "Press ON!" and the music takes a nifty switch to high gear. Last night the tune took on a life of its own, flipping over and over with tight tempo changes. It's amazing how together the band sounded at times, and this was the best example. A straightforward bluesiness shuffled smoothly into an almost disco beat as Marcus held anchor - and then back again - and then back to the groove. Cyclical meandering the band worked the song like a masseuse - tighter and harder, working the muscles to the point of painful-but-oh-so-good burning until finally releasing the pressure in a refreshing feeling of "aaaah" until starting all over again.

Saturday night, "Press On" would take on a new life. After an eon of this serious massage, the band switched it up - "ok sir, we're done with the back, turn over so I can work on the front." This very well could have been a new song, because the jam was as structured as any of their instrumentals and followed the same composed-but-loose-as-hell nature as most of their songs do. What was most impressive from the get-go was the purity of the segue. For a band that wears its lack of discipline on its sleeve with pride, their sense of togetherness and communication is more evident than ever. As the "Press On" jam spiralled, Robert subtly switched up his theme and nodded to John who caught on immediately. From there the band locked in place almost immediately and the new jam was afoot without a crease or stitch showing.

The jam was short and sweet with the band really rocking it hard. Amazing how they have come to fill in all the musical "space." I find a major, but perhaps over-simply superficial, way to categorize bands is how they fill that "space" - some bands like to leave no patch of their canvas bare, smearing colorful paint on each area (Widespread Panic, Allman Brothers, Sound Tribe Sector 9 etc.); others use the silence or lack of color in certain portions of the canvas as part of the music (Phish, Steve Kimock Band, Medeski, Martin & Wood, etc.). Robert Randolph and the Family Band has become, without a doubt, a member of category A. Marcus' drum work alone has dialated to cover a vast portion of the space available and John Ginty has gone from "the 4th guy" to a major stockholder in the publicly offered Family Band sound.

What happened next in the show took that logic and turned it inside out, so that the space was still covered, but with everything seeming a bit out of place. Here's how I called it - as the jam hit "autopilot," Robert hopped off his steel and bumped Marcus off his drum kit. Robert took over on drums, barely losing a beat in the groove as Marcus took over on steel. Now, I have actually seen them do something like this in a soundcheck many months ago (and they did the same thing earlier this week), so I was aware of the multi-talented nature of this band. I just never thought they could have honed their abilities and their confidence so quickly so as to play like this on stage. Talent reigns supreme in the Randolph family (if you've heard his sister or brother hop in on vocals, you are sure to believe that the Family Band is just a manifestation of what is probably a myriad of permutations and combinations that could entertain to equal results) and Marcus can flat out PLAY the pedal steel guitar. While the playing may have been a touch simplified from Robert's antics, the jam took no hit whatsoever in quality. This was no GIMMICK (one thing you learn about this band is that there are no gimmicks - what you see is what you get, repeated stage-banter and all) this was a new side to the band which posed no reason to stop our boogie in the slightest. The focus of the playing shifted slightly to the ever-grooving Ginty and Morgan who pressed on with some step-to-the-plate nastiness.

Next Robert hopped off the drums and bumped Danyell off the bass who took the empty seat at the drum kit. Again the jam continued in a new light, but no less remarkable or enjoyable. After more of the same, John hopped off the organ and bumped Danyell off the drums (4 drummers in 1 jam?) and Danyell moved to the new electric piano on Ginty's set-up. Robert and Marcus ripped it up for a while and then they made way for John to take the lone drum solo of the night. Spectacular fun as Robert, always the showman, played a little Hendrix-style, behind the head bass before finally calling it quits and moving back over to the steel. One-by-one the band made their way back to "normal" without the jam ever really lapsing for more than a few seconds. With a remarkable dexterity the jam continued smoothly until Robert deftly flipped it back into the "Press On" theme. The audience didn't flap a bit and chanted "PRESS ON!" in glee as the band let out a musical sigh of "good to be home." What makes "Pressing My Way" such a great tune in my eyes, is that it really is a "song." That is, it isn't just a mind-rocking, open-ended jam that goes willy-nilly with prefabricated signals that chart changes and endings. It actually has sections and the beauty hits when, after the heightening jams can go no longer, the beginning section of bluesy moodiness returns. This coda brought on new meaning with the vast wilderness of sonic acrobatics the band performed within Saturday's version. WHEW!!

"The March" is a tune they've been playing since the beginning. But, as with everything in the Family Band world, there are changes afoot. The band has reworked portions of the song to give it a world of depth. Taking the general theme and flipping tempo and lead-lines from pedal steel to bass and organ, the guys have brilliantly freshened this barnburner of a song. This section was used as short intro and then again as a pseudo-outro that appeared at the end before wavering back and forth to the "old" form. In this way, the band and the song switched between negative and positive incarnations of itself.

Another advance that has breathed new and exciting life into their stock material has been the adept use of effects by Robert. Oftentimes a musician will take an aggravating period of time to accustom themselves to effects on their playing with somewhat painful results. Robert has been patient and smart in his use - sparingly and almost always perfectly placed. I hesitate to use the term "space funk pedal steel" but I'll be damned if he wasn't shooting laser beams out of his custom 13-stringer last night at certain points. Later in the standard-after-a-year "I Don't Know What You've Come To Do," a swirling effect brought some vibrance to an already meaty tune.

"Voodoo Child" started off smoking and I was expecting this one to take us on interplanetary explorations. Some recent versions of this have taken the "gospel" of the Family Band to some seriously dark and uncharted worlds. Robert was certainly on his way last night, but equipment problems set the band on a detour that ended in a bit of a quagmire. While the problems were being worked out, mid-song, Robert got up completely and another Randolph cousin, Dwayne (?), took the drum kit duties from Marcus and the organ trio left on stage brought out some deep, bass-thumping funk for a few minutes before the song was finally shoddily finished up. A touch disappointing as the sound difficulties rendered much of the rest of the set a touch "off" - but what can you do?

After the always-rousing "I Don't Know What You've Come To Do" which had the floors bouncing with the well-time feet stomping of the maniacal crowd and the windows rattling with the synchronized screaming of Robert and his legions, I was confident the show had reached an end. It was the show stopper we have become accustomed to, and I had trouble seeing how they could top it. How wrong I was, the band launched into a new number (debuted on Wednesday) - a cover of the Temptations' "Papa Was A Rolling Stone." This was just jaw-droppingly sick! Unlike the "Voodoo Child" they play which is basically an instrumental jam on a theme, this was a true COVER. They reworked it perfectly for their instrumentation and after a funk-down intro that twisted the theme over a couple times, they sang the lyrics wonderfully - Robert singing the first line and Danyell's falsetto nailing the second. The crowd was pretty attuned to the band and was massaged thoroughly into being a part of the show to the fullest. From the get-go they were singing along, line for line, and Robert worked them in perfectly. This tune didn't take off into tumultuous jamming as all the previous tunes had, which was a wonderfully disciplined turn of events, I thought. It went on and on with repeated singing and playing but lasted just the right amount of time. For a newly busted out tune, the band was as tight as ever, with Danyell and Robert just sizzling on the theme.

When enough finally became enough and the song got that ready-to-finish aura to it, more prestidigitation was on hand as Robert shifted back to a jam reminiscent of the previously ripped-through instrumental "Run For Your Life." The surprises weren't finished as Robert then worked in the repeated lines from "I Don't Know..." although the tempo and the key were completely different from the standard version, Robert worked it out perfectly urging for one last time a mass hand-clap, foot-stomp and throat- shriek. I call it a "I Don't Know What You Came To Do Reprise," but it was really a superposition of that song with "Run For Your Life" which was as ingenious as it was enjoyable.

The show finally came to an end with the audience that was left standing in ecstacy and Robert clearly not wanting to leave the stage. But it had been almost 3 hours without a single break and exhaustion was the name of the game. It had been a marathon New Year's celebration to go down for history. I had trouble imagining, back at the Lakeside Lounge almost a year ago, how and when this band would get better. Now that I've seen what their invention and innovation has yielded, who knows what the next year will bring for the Family Band. I'll see you there in 365 days... Happy New Year!

Aaron Stein
JamBase | New York City
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