StarGlider’s Review of “Roger Box”on their 4/13/2001 live set Having heard the demos of these guys, I surrendered to the cajoling of some buds at work, to abandon my relatively domestic weekend lifestyle and go see (The) Roger Box play live. I was hesitant, since I had ridden my bike to work, and the forecast was for 38 degrees that night. And, I’m a lightweight. But I went, and I’m glad I did. First off, let me tell you what I’m factoring out: The Elbow Room, or is it just ‘Elbow Room’ was a bar that was longer than it was wide, and the bands, including Meniscus and Four Years Gone were also playing that night. So, I’m factoring out
So with all that factored out, what am I factoring in?
“Let the Music do the talkin’” It did! They started out with an instrumental called, I’m told, “Bobby’s Song.” I have it on good authority that it was a ditty that bassist Bob Duman was diddling with, when the rest of the guys picked it up. BLAMMO! One of those simple riffs on bass that would have taken about 2 minutes to learn, and made you wonder why no one had ever done it before. I mean, how many combinations of bouncing around on the bottom two strings of a bass are there? I don’t know, but there is one more, and it was sweet. Somewhere between Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” and Ozzy’s “No More Tears”, the drive of the bass was balanced by a zinging steel of Duane’s Parker/Mesa and Brian’s Strat/Carvin with a cool little humbucker on the bridge pickup. I wrote three words on my sheet to remind me of what I thought of it... “Black Dog Tone” I was taught that the single most important element of music is tone. One note, played with good tone is better then a Brahms symphony on kazoo’s. These guys asymptotically approached the universal constant of Rock and Roll, which like the speed of light, will never be exceeded: The tone of Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog. I definitely want this tune in my helmet as I roll it on this summer! Next, they segued into “D Song” as if it were the second movement. I’m not going to repeat my reviews of the songs themselves, since you can read that on the Demos page. But I will say this: They sounded just like their recording. That is good for two reasons:
Next track was a cover of “Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots. Dangerous ground, cover tunes, because there are only three ways to do them:
Don’t panic! They did #1. Duane got the sound right, Brian emulated the mystery lyrics just fine (what IS that song about, anyway?), and added a hint of Creed, a slightly baritone timbre. The execution was tight, the accuracy was bang on and I could sense the crowd was impressed. So now, not only is/are Roger Box better than Pearl Jam, they are at least as good as STP. Maybe they should try ‘Sex-type thing ‘ ;-) I ‘m going to save song #4 for last, and mention the other two covers. Tune #7 was “Cumbersome” by Seven Mary 3. Again, they did a fine rendition, just like the original, and I think Brian even mangled the lyrics, but no one cared. Few noticed. N/P. The last cover was also the last song. They did a switcheroo where, let’s see... Bob switched with Duane, and Brian switched with Keith. Keith started frenetically yet quietly building a chord, Bob on the Parker would strum a smooth chord every few beats and then they burst into “Everlong” by the Fighters of Foo! Brian was just screaming on the high-hat, and hitting a cymbal or a snare now and again, managing to do live what we are SURE the Fighters did with overdub. But here’s the kicker... Keith denies this, but the consensus was 99%... they played it WAY too fast. Play Everlong too fast, and you get a train wreck, right? WRONG! They finished it, having held it together, no problemo, and the crowd erupted. People that I KNOW know music were stunned. They pulled it off, but more, they did something fresh. For in their frenetic pace, they managed to give it a punk flavor. They took a song from Dave Grohl, former drummer of Nirvana, the crown prince of “Whatever and ever, amen” and resurrected Johnny Rotten ( or is it Sid “I am an anarchist” Vicious who died?) for the Sex Pistols version. It was truly fresh. If that song is about what I THINK it’s about, they got tired of waiting, everlong. They were over their heads, and out of their heads they sang! It was a perfect finale for the night, and like a fleet of model rockets, we all parachuted down in our own personal afterglow. OK, back to #5 & 6, then #4. Confession: They did two of their CD tracks for #5 & 6, but when I wrote down my notes to remind me of my impression, they failed to. Not their fault. I do recall that they sounded like the CD, but I expect that. Track #8 was “At a Loss#148;. If you read the review of the CD, you’ll know that I liked this song alot, and it’s gloomy passages played well in the smoky, late-night of the bar, and their “pouring on the coal” played with the crowd. They would mellow out for the foggy portion, then snap to life, much like the ‘firing engine’ analogy I cited in the CD review. The song cast its necromancer’s spell, and that was the idea, I think. (They have GOT to play that engine starting riff twice, or I’m gonna call either Jesse Jackson or Willie G. Davidson (as in Harley) in on them!) Lemme take a minute to mention a few items that they will need to work on, if they want to be contenders. Even though I factored out the ‘acoustics’, I can tell they need to work on their “blend.” I know that they are individually very atune to how they each sound, but now they have to work on how “they all” sound, as an ensemble. Bob has his bass and amp setup (4-10” and 1 -18”) with the optimum balance with enough crunch, and with enough, um, ass-end for their genre, but he occasionally got tonally lost in the bottom of the Strat. (Personal note, Bob: I think you got the optimum setup. Real bright and crisp on top, nice and sturdy on the bottom, for that extra push that only a bass player with that long scale can make happen. YKWIS?) Duane’s got some great sounds coming out of his equipment, but the blend with the Strat is like a duet with a violin and a saxophone. Each has their place, but blending them together is tricky. Brian’s vocals remind me of an organ solo on an old Hammond B3. Tonally right on, controlled enough to cover the subtleties of their repertoire, but like the B3, hits a little too hard to blend in. Round off the attacking edge a bit and feather in with the guitars, and the ensemble effect will gel. Ensemblically, they have the rhythm sync nailed! They were very tight, even when the rate of spin wanted to toss them all off the merry-go-round. I credit Keith for that. Though, I am not a drummer, I know a good one when I see one. Keith is relatively new at the game, but he seems to be a natural. He already has his own style. If you think of Neil Peart as being in a cocoon, pulsing and throbbing until his whips his arms out in a flurry of percussive sparks, think of Keith as an avenging angel, wings spread as he delivers his musical retribution. He plays drums the way that Andre Agassi plays tennis. Wide stance, hitting cymbals on either side of his set. Picture John Bonham doing Tai-Chi! Or Tae Bo! If I had to pick (i don’t) I would say that Keith is the musician in his most natural element. What about Duane? Duane is clearly the most artistic of the group. I watched Duane play with his amp before the set the way that Van Gogh mixed his palette. Duane will be the first to “go off on a solo project.” On one song, I think it was “Hard to Play”, Duane would chime a very well engineered note, to zing like a sniper’s laser over the order-through-chaos what was going on around him. When all others were giving us more edge than the U2 ZooTV tour, Duane chose a tone on his Parker that caught me by surprise. It was a mellow, jazzy tone from Pat Metheny or Larry Coryell. (Again, hit Napster!) If you (or your parents) are old enough, think of the guitars on Bachman-Turner Overdrive’s Blue Collar, or even Jimi Hendrix’s Watchtower. (I would like to hear more of the high end of that “Fly”guitar, though.) But, besides his skill, there is an artistry there, waiting for its canvas. I would suggest Duane’s input on the production of the CD’s. What about Brian? First off, let me say that I NEVER would have put that voice in that body. Again, if you are really old, you might remember Phil Lynotte of Thin Lizzy. Brian could be his grandkid. If you read my review of Brian’s vocal, let me ease your mind. He’s not (as) shy anymore. Even as I listened to him sing the covers, I could hear HIS voice. It’s still not dancing naked in the moonlight, but it’s extricating itself from the chrysalis that the mainstream wove for him. These gigs will only make him stronger. That said, I have to issue my warning for Brian. No band ever managed to get their guitarist to be the vocalist at the same time. That’s why Sammy Hagar doesn’t play the tough stuff when he sang with VH. That’s why Stevie Ray Vaughn just played chords between soloes. That’s why Kirk Hammet doesn’t sing. What about James Hetfield? He plays guitar and sings. Listen to the guitar parts he plays when he sings live. Cake. Okay, Head-hammering Metal Cake, but you see where I’m going. One must increase and the other decrease. True, you pulled ‘hard to Play’ off magnificently, but wow, can you keep that up for 2 hours? Could you play (somebody help me, what’s that song on Tool’s Aenima... Forty 6 & 2?) AND sing? I talked about the lyrics in my last review. The best hope for Roger Box is to bring the lyrics up to the same level of intensity as the parts behind it. to do that, Brian will need to lay out on guitar. Maybe Van Hagar ;-) is a good paradigm. What about Bob? (sigh) What about Bob? Again, let me state the following warning. I work with Bob AND I’m a bass player, having played 4 years with the UMich Basketball band, on electric bass. Bob’s Achilles heel is obvious to me. I see it every day, and I saw it on Good Friday Night... Bob is just too freaking solid. Bob is the paragon of reliability on bass, in the rich tradition of Gene Simmons when Ace and Paul took off on some wild ride, or John Paul Jones, when Jimmy Page, or even Lenny Kravitz took off on their episodic sorceries. Bob (and Keith) were the rhythms of the rails on “Bobby’s Song” and the Cornerstone and Foundation of “Hard to Play.” He’d told me of some of the train wrecks they’d had in rehearsals, but he was Casey Jones that night. (The one from Officer and a Gentleman, not from the Grateful Dead.) So what’s the problem? To quote a local, Ann Arbor rocker, Bob Seger... “(I) Stood high on a mountain top, staring out at the great divide Bob is a guitar player who is playing bass. Bob knows this. Bob plays the guitar parts on his bass. Too many times, as I was listening to see if could pick out his tone, that he worked hard on, I had trouble discerning his part from (usually) Brian. The Bass is stuck on a fence, and needs to go one way or the other.
These guys have the talent to play songs like Bobby’s Song and hard to play. If they put some of them red hot chili peppers into the other songs, their future will get even brighter. Also, Bob looks a little too much like a Microsoft Engineer jamming with a few hackers. A mutual co-worker, Jason, suggested that maybe next time, Bob could come out and play... naked, like Flea and the Chilly Peepees. Okay, maybe wear a sock. Ok... now for Track #4. Why did I save this for last? Because the performance of this song holds the key to Roger Box’s future. They call the song “Hard to Play”, which has a very Steven Tyler-esque sexual innuendo to it, and for that alone, it scores high. But musically, this song was (allegedly) in 6/8 time. It was a poly-rhythm! Guitars were doing a twisted, speed freak waltz that would have made Frank Zappa smile, and the drum was doing something else that cabled the whole twisted trio together. I caught myself drumming along with my pen (and I am no drummer and can get signed affidavits to prove it) They pulled off, without an audible hitch, a trick that few bands do, and even fewer do well... the odd metered polyrhythm. Here are some of the few that succeeded that we might all know:
This is a short list. This doesn’t happen often in Rock and Roll. It’s too risky. These guys played it, played it well, and made it sound good. Here is the key: These guys have two paths they can go by, but in the long run... (sorry). They have the musical potential to play music that challenges the listener to “listen up!” Tool/Perfect Circle/Kittie does that. Green Day doesn’t. Blink 182 doesn’t. If they're taking suggestions, I could see Roger Box becoming the back up band for a vocal star, like Joydrop, Garbage, or maybe a female-lead Limp Bizkit. Freda Durst? Or maybe a female Maynard... their band's name could be 'Judith Iscariot.' Speaking of, one other sugggestion is to settle the name issue. Roger Box is fine unless some folk group from Georgia already has it. I HIGHLY recommend settling it before you play the Blind Pig. Everyone who was there for you last time, will know who you are when you play ‘the Pig’ but no point in having to call yerself “TBFKARB” after you change the name... If you do. Whatever, nevermind. Here’s their challenge: What kind of music do you REALLY want to do? You have the skills to play anything you can imagine. So what’s it going to be? I think you can make it something new. Who was the first band to play metal grunged rap? I dunno, but Limb Bizkit is wearing the crown, today. Every musical trend is based on the rejection of the previous. Today we have either StaticX, StainD, SlipKnot, Incubus, Drowning Pool, Powerman5K... OR we have Lit, Len, Ben Folds Five( whom I like), Marcy Playground and the other whiny wimps. What trend of tomorrow is rebelling against these guys? It could be you. Get those new songs on MP3 and let us try to keep up! What fresh thang can 4 guys with guitars do? They need to find out, and then let us know... we’re ready. And when they get there, I suspect that they may find those new songs, well, hard to play! Roger that! StarGlider 4/16/2001 PS. I froze my A55 off on the hour ride home, but it was worth it ;-) PSS. Aerosmith with Run DMC. |