Review By: JW Anderson
I made it to the Taste of Minnesota to see JS. Great Show. It seems
July must be Jefferson family month in Minnesota. Last July Jorma and Mike
played here and this year JS.
To provide some background, the "Taste of Minnesota" is St. Paul's oldest
outdoor festival with samplings of all different kinds of foods and music.
The music festival has 4 different stages. JSTNG played at the classic rock
stage sponsored by a local radio station and Budweiser. I'm sure Paul loved
that.
The show was supposed to start at 8:30, although the paper announced it at
8:00. Well there was a SNAFU (Situation Normal All Fucked Up) with the
sound system, which went out on a couple of songs during the set, and the
show didn't start til 9. The band consisted of Paul, Marty, Diana, "Slick",
Prairie Prince, Bill Layman and T Lavitz on keyboards.
The Show opened with a haunting version of Crown of Creation and kept up
steam, with a few lapses, until the final encore. I wasn't taking notes so
the set list following this narrative may not be complete, but... Hey, I'm
old. What do you expect?
I will say that Diana and Marty's voices were in peak form for this
performance. Every time I want to write Marty off as a mush balladeer, he
surprises me with his vocal presence (both lead and back up) that I remember
him from back... well, a long time ago.
The crowd was a mix of old faithfuls, passers by and curious younger folks.
I witnessed very few obnoxious drunks, ala the Allman Brothers a while back.
But that's another story. This crowd consisted of people who came to
listen to the music and have a fun time with the band. The band and the
crowd seemed to get energy from each other and all at once it was over.
Much too soon, IMO.
Paul was basically in the background all night. No lead vocals, no stories,
very little interaction with the crowd. He did, however, smoke a lot of
cigarettes during the set. And I thought I was smoking a lot lately.
Marty, on the other hand, set the mood with a lot of energy, a lot of
interaction with the crowd and generally led the show. And then there was
Diana. She was featured on a number of tunes. A great, great voice. She
is a real asset for this band. And the crowd just loved her.
The rythym section cooked with some smoking lead work by Slick, fine
keyboard work by Lavitz and more than adequate bass work by Layman. As a
matter of fact I was trully impressed by Layman. Although he is no Jack
Cassady, he did do a very good job, especially on Ganja of Love, where Paul
requested "Let's have a lot of bass".
The show lasted about an hour fifteen with the encore. I drifted back stage
afterward to see if I could get to talk to any of the folks in the band, but
Paul just didn't appear in the mood. Diana and Marty seemed like they were
willing to hang around awhile, but Paul was in a hurry to split so no small
talk with us few fans hanging out. Oh well.
---E N C O R E---
Other Side Of This Life
White Rabbit
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JW ANDERSON
ST. PAUL, MN
