NRBQ ~ 2012 April 6 ~ Tupelo Music Hall, Londonderry, NH
Band personnel: Terry Adams, keyboards, vocals; Pete Donnelly, bass, vocals; Scott Ligon, guitar, vocals; Conrad Choucron, drums, backing vocals; two guys on horns whose names I don't know
Scroll down past the videos for review; photo gallery to the right.
Videos
"I Don't Know Why":
"Florida":
"We're Walking":
Review
This was my third visit to the Tupelo Music Hall, a venue in what appears to be an old house in the ruinously overbuilt small city of Londonderry, NH. This town used to be apple orchard country; now it's shopping mall country, and the malls have names like Harvest Overlook Plaza, and the like ("this is where the apples used to be"). The venue is very easy to find from Exit 4 off of Rte. 93, and despite the misfortune of losing all those apple orchards, at least all those malls equal plenty of places to eat before the show.
We got to the venue about an hour before showtime, but the line didn't start to form until 20 minutes before the doors were to open. But then the show was completely sold out, so I guess it means NRBQ fans aren't the early arrivers the Concert Going Partner and I typically are. It turns out the venue serves a decent selection of food, including sandwiches and desserts. For different shows, depending on how many tickets are sold, the seating can vary. If not too many seats have been sold, they put out round tables that seat eight, but for a sold out show like this, you get rows of folding chairs.
I had never seen NRBQ (the New Rhythm & Blues Quartet) before. They're a band that have flickered vaguely in my awareness of rock music for decades, without having the opportunity to make much impression. But it turns out everything I have heard about this dynamic live band is true.
They're high energy, they're goofy, they play without a set list and sometimes no reference other than the millions of songs embedded in bandleader Terry Adams' brain. They played a few songs that I recognized from an NRBQ compilation that I have ("Magnet," "Me and the Boys," "Rain at the Drive-In"). They play NRBQ songs, they play covers of songs by other rock bands, they play standards that your grandmother owned on 78. They played the title track from Pete Donnelly's new solo album, When You Come Home (the highlight of the show for me).
In addition to the four main musicians, the band features a horn section of two musicians, one of whom also had a lead vocal, and one of whom played the pedal steel on a few songs. They played a long, long show, I would estimate in the 2 1/2 hour range, and I did not keep a set list but I would not be surprised if they played 40 songs. They are a little too jazzy for my personal taste, but they were so much fun that I could just about overlook that. Many songs ended raggedly, showing a disregard for fussy precision. Fred Doake, the singing valet from the Chandler Travis Philharmonic, was spotted in the audience. There were numerous fans who were following them around to a number of shows.
One of the reasons we chose to attend this show was that Pete Donnelly is the bass player in this current version of NRBQ, and we are fans of his from his work with The Figgs. He and lead guitarist Scott Ligon worked together seamlessly, with vocal harmonies meshing beautifully. Both Pete and Scott sang lead vocals or co-lead vocals on quite a few songs. Bandleader Terry Adams is a bit of wild man, but you knew that if you are an NRBQ fan, and some of his crazy, joyful attitude comes through in the photo gallery (scroll up, right side of page). At one point he addressed the audience, saying he wanted to meet some new people, and called out "fifth row, third seat in, what's your name?" It was, like the whole rest of the show, all in good fun.
I filmed three videos, and I think that by pure chance I got a good cross-section of the kinds of songs this unique band perform, including one crooner standard, one old NRBQ original, and one new NRBQ original. Links to the videos are higher up on the page.
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